The Words of Others: From Quotations to Culture by Gary Saul Morson (review)

Morson’s latest book, readable and well written, is at least four different kinds of thing: an investigation into the nature of quotation; a discussion of some activities that seem to be quotation prone (notably, famous last words and epitaphs); a description of some genres where quotations are gathered (such as anthologies and commonplace books); and, deliberately or not, the container of many dozens of quotations, often used as examples. Morson remarks that only human beings practice quotation, which appears prima facie probable. By this remark, though, Morson also means to endorse a general view of human beings modeled on quotation, similar to the view put forth by Mikhail Bakhtin. The move invites discussion. At the same time, the topic disinvites it, given the implication that, in a toss-up between quotation and argument, quotation always wins. You remember the quotations first and only then, often vaguely, the arguments. If this experience tells you something about human beings, and something that seems to confirm Morson’s main thesis, it also explains why I, for one, have enjoyed this book mostly as the author’s own commonplace book of quotations.