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kevin_shepherd 's review for:
In Defense of Women
by H.L. Mencken
“[Women] see at a glance what most men could not see with searchlights and telescopes; they are at grips with the essentials of a problem before men have finished debating its mere externals. They are the supreme realists of the race. Apparently illogical, they are the possessors of a rare and subtle super-logic.”
Mencken, wielding both satire and sarcasm, oscillates between being very “Mark Twain” and being very “Archie Bunker.” I find him both hysterically funny and (often) terribly offensive. In some ways, his essays reflect the prevailing attitudes of the era, but in other ways he transcends the prejudices of America (circa 1918) by lampooning its social institutions and misogynistic civilities.
“If the work of the average man required half the mental agility and readiness of resource of the work of the average prostitute, the average man would be constantly on the verge of starvation.”
There are so many sardonic witticisms here that highlighting everything quote worthy became quite a chore.
“Complete masculinity and stupidity are often indistinguishable.”
Mencken on matrimony:
“A man in full possession of the modest faculties that nature commonly apportions to him is at least far enough above idiocy to realize that marriage is a bargain in which he gets the worst of it...”
Mencken on feminists:
“...all of the ladies to take to this political immolation seem to be frightfully plain. I know those of England, Germany and Scandinavia only by their portraits in the illustrated papers, but those of the United States I have studied at close range at various large political gatherings... I give you my word that there were not five women at either national convention who could have embraced me in camera without first giving me a chloral.”
Mencken on domestic violence:
“I served for a year or so as reporter for a newspaper in a police court, and during that time I heard perhaps four hundred cases of so-called wife-beating. The husbands, in their defense, almost invariably pleaded justification, and some of them told such tales of studied atrocity at the domestic hearth, both psychic and physical, that the learned magistrate discharged them with tears in his eyes and the very catchpolls in the courtroom had to blow their noses.”
It’s hard to pin Mencken down. I don’t know enough about him to decide if he’s a brilliant satirist or just an asshole... 4 tentative stars
Mencken, wielding both satire and sarcasm, oscillates between being very “Mark Twain” and being very “Archie Bunker.” I find him both hysterically funny and (often) terribly offensive. In some ways, his essays reflect the prevailing attitudes of the era, but in other ways he transcends the prejudices of America (circa 1918) by lampooning its social institutions and misogynistic civilities.
“If the work of the average man required half the mental agility and readiness of resource of the work of the average prostitute, the average man would be constantly on the verge of starvation.”
There are so many sardonic witticisms here that highlighting everything quote worthy became quite a chore.
“Complete masculinity and stupidity are often indistinguishable.”
Mencken on matrimony:
“A man in full possession of the modest faculties that nature commonly apportions to him is at least far enough above idiocy to realize that marriage is a bargain in which he gets the worst of it...”
Mencken on feminists:
“...all of the ladies to take to this political immolation seem to be frightfully plain. I know those of England, Germany and Scandinavia only by their portraits in the illustrated papers, but those of the United States I have studied at close range at various large political gatherings... I give you my word that there were not five women at either national convention who could have embraced me in camera without first giving me a chloral.”
Mencken on domestic violence:
“I served for a year or so as reporter for a newspaper in a police court, and during that time I heard perhaps four hundred cases of so-called wife-beating. The husbands, in their defense, almost invariably pleaded justification, and some of them told such tales of studied atrocity at the domestic hearth, both psychic and physical, that the learned magistrate discharged them with tears in his eyes and the very catchpolls in the courtroom had to blow their noses.”
It’s hard to pin Mencken down. I don’t know enough about him to decide if he’s a brilliant satirist or just an asshole... 4 tentative stars