In a bio of the recently passed Ira Levin:
"'This Perfect Day' (1970), a Huxleyan story of a future controlled by technocrats, was something of a damp squib, but in 1972 he again hit the jackpot with The Stepford Wives."
-Anyone know this expression? There are several Google definitions as well as contextual inference; I just never heard it before and wonder as to its derivation.
What would its opposite be?
('Cuz I rather liked the book)
"Damp Squib"?
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1476
- Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:58 pm
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"Damp Squib"?
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
Re: "Damp Squib"?
Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei!In a bio of the recently passed Ira Levin: "'This Perfect Day' (1970), a Huxleyan story of a future controlled by technocrats, was something of a damp squib,
Critics can be such wet blankets.
-gailr
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1476
- Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:58 pm
- Location: Carolinia Agrestícia: The Forest Primeval
Makes perfect sense as such, thanks Per.I believe that a squib is a small firecracker. So a damp squib would be one rendered impotent.
Mayhap it's a UKism- I think the article was British.
There's a trip down memory laneChrist, Marx, Wood and Wei!
Critics can be such wet blankets.
-gailr
You have a reference copy there, I ween? Such taste!
But needs a better rhyme:
"Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei!
How many Huxleyan stories of a future controlled by technocrats'd you trash today?"
hmmm...
Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots! Knife no one, fink!
Nice rhyming couplet, sluggo.There's a trip down memory lane
You have a reference copy there, I ween? Such taste!
But needs a better rhyme:
"Christ, Marx, Wood and Wei!
How many Huxleyan stories of a future controlled by technocrats'd you trash today?"
hmmm...
Wood, Wei, Christ and Marx,
Gave us posts with lovely snarks.
Yes, I have a reference copy, my tattered-from-rereading paperback from high school, where a fellow iconoclast also suggested Level 7. A pity that Push Button Officer X-127 wasn't restricted to 'damp squibs'.
-gailr
CMW&W! makes an interesting epithet, though...
Babelfish, he is not helping me. [Bagnata = bathed?]Damp squib = castagnola bagnata.
I can't use that around New year!
But Castagnola is not clear, even with the Googles.
?
Try here.Ok for Marx Wood and Wai
But Christ, who is he, I pray?
Babelfish, he is not helping me. [Bagnata = bathed?]Damp squib = castagnola bagnata.
I can't use that around New year!
But Castagnola is not clear, even with the Googles.
?
Bagnata = wet, damp
Castagnola = firecracker (slangish I guess; botto generic for any forms of firecracker and firework = fuoco artificiale). Castagnole (plural) were also used placed on top of railtracks to warn trains of impending dangers.
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