Fightclub and chiasmus

For those who didn’t know, I am a huge fan of a grammatical construction known as chiasmus. Now before you stop reading or say in a loud voice at the computer “Neerrrrd”, let me explain what a chiasmus is, and why I am such a huge fan. The word chiasmus comes from the greek letter chi which is an ‘X’. It involves a quote or saying or phrase where the first and second parts of the quote or saying or phrase are reversed, (or crossed over). The easiest examples I know to explain with are:

When the going gets tough
the tough get going.

And

Ask not what your country can do for you,
But what you can do for your country.

Once you know what they are, you hear and find them everywhere and I think they are cool. The reason that I am telling you this is because I am going to try and drop a chiasmus here and there on my blog, particularly ones that I have heard in everyday life, movies, books, the media or general conversation.

The first is from the movie “Fightclub” which I watched recently. Tyler Durton, one of the main characters, whose ideology borders on militant anarchism, states in relation to possessions and material goods:

“The things you own, end up owning you”

Short, simple and a perfect little chiasmus. Now you are free to say in a loud voice, “Neerrrrd”.

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Leonardo Da Vinci and Chiasmus

Most of the chiasmus quotes I post are word chiasmus, that is, the swapping of words in the sequence, a to b, b to a. Although chiasmus quotes (or chiasm as some people refer to it) can also be the swapping of ideas (not just single words), here is a special treat – a double word chiasmus. Enjoy.

"Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt,
and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen." 

Leonardo Da Vinci

(Click here to see previous chiasmus posts)

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Wanting, Finding, Buying and Chiasmus

Last week I blogged about "La Bella Figura". Well, I could resist a few more quotes including the final one which I think is a triple chiasmus (that's right a triple chiasmus, so make sure you are sitting down before you read it):

"The Italian flight attendant sometimes takes her job title literally - the plane flies, she just attends".

"Tolerance is like wind: a little does you good, too much is harmful".

"It's a world where I buy things I don't want, want things I can't find and find things I'm not going to buy". (speaking of Italian hypermarkets)

(Click here to read previous chiasmus posts)

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Rabbits and chiasmus?

Here are a couple of great cartoons about rabbits that have taken a common thought/idea/event and completely reversed it. They are almost an implied visual chiasmus which is why I am posting them on chiasmus day.




The awesome bunny shadow image is from here Check it out

(Click here to read previous chiasmus posts)

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Kermit the frog and chiasmus

Another implied chiasmus, but this time a word one:

"Time's fun when you're having flies"
Kermit the frog

Click here for more Chiasmus related posts

Click here for more funny pictures

Click here for more cartoons

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What men want in a wife? - A Chiasmus?

Sorry if you're reading this because you want the answer to the question in the title. I only used it because in this article, "What men want in a wife?", there is a brilliant chiasmus by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as quoted by Justin Moffatt, who the article also states is Kevin Rudd's Hero (Bonhoeffer that is, not Moffatt). Anyway enough fluffing around, here is the paragraph and chiasmus:

"Moffatt explains that along with the two individuals involved, the wedding itself, and the vows made, is the third dynamic in a marriage. He cites Kevin Rudd's hero, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who wrote of marriage as "a status, an office", and something more than personal. "It is not your love that sustains the marriage," Bonhoeffer wrote to a couple about to wed, "but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love."

(Click here to read previous chiasmus posts)

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Dog fights and chiasmus

Another chiasmus to start the week. This one is from the 34th President of the USA, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a highly successful military career before he became the president (which may explain the quote):

"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."

(Click here to read previous chiasmus posts)

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Ziggy and Chiasmus

Another nice little chiasmus from Ziggy this time, a comic strip character by Tom Wilson:

“You can complain because roses have thorns, or you can rejoice because thorns have roses”

(Click here to read previous chiasmus posts)

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Love, gifts and Chiasmus

In a recent sermon on a book in the bible called 1 Corinthians, our minister came up with the following chiasmus:

"Do you love to use your gifts, or do you use your gifts to love?"

There was an obvious implication in the sermon that the latter was to be preferred over the former. But perhaps the ideal situation is a person who loves to use their gifts to love. If that makes sense ...

(Click here to read previous chiasmus posts)

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Religion and Christianity Chiasmus

I was walking along Stanley Street today, just near the CBD of Sydney, and I came across this wonderful chiasmus on the side of a building:

"Religion is humanity's search for God. Christianity is God's search for humanity"

If someone knows who said it, I would really appreciate knowing, but in any case, I really liked it. It captures the difference well - God is not lost, we are.

(Click here for other chiasmus posts)

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People, television, churches and chiasmus

I recently read a book called "La Bella Figura - An insider's guide to the italian mind", which is a travel book about Italy, by an Italian. It was excellent, very funny, very informative and the writing was superb. But the reason I am posting about it, is because it contained an excellent quote about churches and television which ended in a chiasmus:

Television in Italy is as exotic as an airport, as unruly as a city street, as hypnotic as a hotel, as perturbing as a store, as ever0changing as a restaurant, as noisy as a train, as deceiving as the countryside, as instructive as a piazza and as ubiquitous as churches. But if the churches are empyting, television holds on to its faithful. Fifty years ago, people talked about the television of the people. Nowadays, we are the people of the television.

(Click here to read previous chiasmus posts)

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Bad jokes and Chiasmus - together at last

Here is a bad joke and a chiasmus all rolled into one - fantastic.
There are hundreds of these type of chiasmus jokes so you can be thankful I am only giving you one (at a time).
Enjoy

What is the difference between a crocodile and a baby?
One makes its bed in a river and the other makes a river in its bed

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Leunig and chiasmus

I don’t normally get Leunig cartoons. Perhaps I’m thick but I often finish looking at them quite confused. And to make things worse, sometimes people tell me that not getting them is actually getting them and that makes me even more confused. But this one I get and more interestingly it is a chiasmus on the words glass and ice. Enjoy.



Click here to view previous chiasmus posts

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Obama’s inauguration speech - Wordplay

Throughout his two year campaign for the Oval office, Obama revelled in his power over words, and delighted linguists, grammarians, and other pedants like myself, time and time again. His inauguration speech was no different – his wordplay was great, but my one criticism is that there was just so little of it. Here are two that I managed to find:

For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

And my favourite line (very close to a chiasmus, if not a chiasmus):

a nation cannot prosper long when it favours only the prosperous.

(Click here to read the Introduction to this series of posts,

or here to read a previous post about Obama and Chiasmus)

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Obama, Trotsky and Chiasmus

I don’t normally read the Economist Magazine, for a whole range of reasons including time, money, energy, degree of difficulty (I’ve never studied commerce), and also because I’m not much of a magazine person. But whenever I do read it, I enjoy it. I enjoy the reporting, and the coverage of issues, but most of all I enjoy the quality of writing.

For example, here is another chiasmus , perfectly intertwined in an article about Barrack Obama. The journalist is commenting on the United States need for someone to rescue the world economy, tackle climate change, reform global institutions, and above all revive America itself, and how it’s hardly the agenda Obama would have chosen for himself:

“But a new president cannot pick the place his story starts. ‘You may not be interested in war,’ Trotsky once said, ‘but war is interested in you.’ Thanks to the legacy bequeathed by Osama bin Laden and George Bush, Mr Obama will begin his term as a war president, one who has promised to end the war in Iraq but to win the one in Afghanistan. These, no less than digging America out of recession, will be preoccupations from day one."

(click here to read a previous chiasmus post)

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A morning chiasmus

Here is what in my opinion is a fantastic chiasmus:

"Every morning, in your first view of the day,
you have the choice to say,
'Good morning, God' or 'Good God, morning.' "

Wayne Dyer, American author

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Humility and chiasmus

Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.

C.S. Lewis

(Click here to read previous chiasmus posts)

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Chiasmus and Thomas a Kempis

Another chiasmus, from good ole' Thomas a Kempis:

"He who loves with purity considers not the gift of the lover, but the love of the giver"

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A relationship chiasmus

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A lucky rabbit (and) foot

A pictorial chiasmus - Click here for other chiasmus posts

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