On Being Blue: A Philosophical Inquiry by William H. Gass is, well, a very innovative and enlightening piece of work. Mr. Gass redefines Philosophical Inquiry and in the process shames his equivalents. Actually, it is not a mere Philosophical Inquiry, it's also with a touch of Linguistic Analysis, a smear of Satirical Extravaganza, and a fine dose of the grandest prose. One can clearly see the genius that he is, based alone on his sentence construction. This book is worth reading just for the words alone, even without all the ideas. That's how good his writing is. The concept is that he examines "Blue" as a color, as a word, as a Platonic idea, and as a feeling. As a Communication student, I guess I've encountered some of his other notions, especially those concerning with Linguistics, Semantics, and Pragmatics. Yet, I'm quite amazed at how interesting he presents it. Cause my text-books contain mostly the same things yet can't hold my undivided attention. It may be partly due to him making use of very scandalous topics such as sexual material in literature and swearing or the good ole' cussing or whatever you want to call it. Partly, too, because of his mastery over the medium. But there's a fine distinction between him and the linguistic scholars that write my university text books. I utterly believe that Mr. Gass is in love with language, while the others merely study it. And that makes all the difference. There's no equivalent of a man so in-love with language, not even the best of scholars. Don't misquote me. I'm not saying that all writers are in love with language. As Gass himself states, a lot of writers write for matter, for fame, for money. But only a chosen few write for the language. And one can clearly see his passion, not only based on what he says but it is also reflected by his prose-style. So, my admiration for that man is really profound. This work is the true embodiment of what literature should be: harnessed to every bit of its potential. Language written to inform while maintaining all of its poetic beauty.
This sort of filth has no place on a book review site which could be viewed by children. The explicit obscenities that bloat this seemingly innocuous pamphlet could have no purpose other than to corrode the virtue of readers by attempting to elevate their most base and craven lusts to the sphere of fine aesthetics.William H. Gass is an unctuous smut-peddler whose greasy grammar all but slithers across the page and up the skirts of innocent texts in his attempt to befoul all that is right and pure.The coarsening of our culture continues unabated but Mr. Gass is unsatisfied with confining this pernicious infection to television, music, movies, magazines, and 90% of the internet; no, he must also besmirch poetry, history, a whole color, and the once-glorious rhetorical figure antanaclasis:Contrary to those romantic myths which glorify the speech of mountain men and working people, Irish elves and Phoenician sailors, the words which in our language are worst off are the ones which the worst-off use.On top of its casual slander of people without his sophisticated appetite for crassness, this lump of corrupted wisdom is used as an excuse to propose we expand our litany of expletives! Mr. Gass actually expresses his disappointment at there being only one (view spoiler)[F-word! (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about On Being Blue (1991)?
There's no question that Gass has a first-class writing style, equal parts goofy and lyrical. Like Shakespeare, Gass takes boyish pleasure in filling a page with an effervescent mixture of bawdiness and wordplay, gilding it all with a sophistication of style that completely shields him from any potential accusations of being (gasp!) "lowbrow." He has a profound learnedness, a deep and intimate familiarity with English literature, that is rather reminiscent of James Wood. Like Wood, Gass strews his prose with rather obscure quotations from literary texts -- the B-sides of literature, so to speak -- in a way that makes his readers hungry to dash to the nearest library and devour those texts that he references so lovingly. Gass effuses. He cavorts. He ejaculates all over the page. In short, I should have enjoyed this book more than I did. It was the logical-scientific part of my mind that hindered me: I ultimately wanted Gass's arguments to be clearer, easier to follow, and more substantial than just "Writing about sex is hard to do."
—Jenna
“Yellow cannot readily ingest gray. It clamors for white. But blue will swallow black like a bell swallows silence ‘to echo a grief that is hardly human.’ Because blue contracts, retreats, it is the colour of transcendence, leading us away in pursuit of the infinite.” On second thoughts, I think this book deserves 5 stars.It consists of an amazing few chapters that examines the colour blue in everyday life, literature etc. It's quite amazing how thorough Gass is in talking about this colour, tracing back the origins of "blue" idiomatic expressions, referencing "blue" passages from famous writers such as Joyce, Rabelais and De Sade and so on. I haven't read anything else by him but I do like his writing style a lot; it's obvious he's a fan of the English language, and his use of the language is stunning and frank at the same time.
—Rowena
A weird book, therefore I like it. Specifically, I have a weakness for experiments dashed off by immensely smart people. Gass has something of Sebald's meandering, glass-bead-game associativeness, but there aren't pictures — &, more damningly, he doesn't come across as humane as Sebald. On Being Blue changed how I see, though, which is hard to do & something I value. It is an extended, literary, sometimes erotic essay on ideas of blueness. At no point does he ever finish a thought (that's not a criticism). Recommended.
—Alastair
