🚀 go-pugleaf

evan@poirot.hpl.hp.com (Evan Kirshenbaum) wrote:
>Ralph M Jones  <rmjones@hal-pc.org> wrote:

>>I looked it up in his "The Devil's Dictionary".  Therein, under "white",
>>you find: White, adj. and n. Black.  "Black" is not defined separately.
>>
>>Now what did he mean by that?
>
>My guess is that in his experience "white" was considered merely an
>(expected) attribute of a person (who might be a lawyer, a carpenter,
>or a bum), while "black" was considered a person's defining
>characteristic.  As most of what made it into his dictionary were
>things he sought to skewer, I'd assume that he thought that this was a
>silly distinction.

I see no reason to read any racial meaning into Bierce's
definition.  Haven't you heard of arguing that black is white?

Keith C. Ivey <kcivey@cpcug.org>         Washington, DC
Contributing Editor/Webmaster
The Editorial Eye <http://www.eeicom.com/eye/>