PARADOX

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PARADOX

• by Don L. F. Nilsen
• and Alleen Pace Nilsen

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GILBERT AND SULLIVAN

• Gilbert and Sullivan often relied on paradox for
  comic effect. In The Pirates of Penzance, they
  composed a song about paradoxes
• How quaint the ways of paradox!
• At common sense she gaily mocks!
• A paradox, a paradox,
• A most ingenious paradox!
• Ha! ha! ha! ha!
• (Nilsen Nilsen 219)

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GREEK PHILOSOPHERS

• The Greek philosophers often wrestled with
  paradoxes.
• The most famous was credited to the Cretan
  philosopher Epimenides All Cretans are liars.
  
• Epimenides was a Cretan. Therefore, If he is
  lying, then the statement must be true. But if
  the statement is true, he must be lying.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 219)

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PARADOX VS. CONTRADICTION

• Paradoxes are statements that seem contradictory,
  unbelievable, or absurd, but in some sense are
  nevertheless true.
• Because paradoxes highlight breakdowns in our
  expectations of a logical universe, they are
  sources of both delight and consternation as the
  human mind works to figure out how people can in
  good faith talk about a large mouse running
  between the legs of a small elephant or can
  make sense out of the Yiddish curse, He should
  drop dead, God forbid!
• (Nilsen Nilsen 219)

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SIGNIFICANT PARADOXES FROM THE 16TH CENTURY TO
THE 20TH CENTURY

• Sits he on ever so high a throne, a man still
  sits on his bottom. (Michel Elyquem de
  Montaigne, 1533-1592)
• We have just enough religion to make us hate, but
  not enough to make us love one another.
  (Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745)

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• I laugh, so that I may not cry. (Pierre Augustin
  Caron de Beaumarchais, 1732-1799)
• Nowadays people know the price of everything and
  the value of nothing. (Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900)

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• !!There aint any answer. There aint going to
  be any answer. There never has been an answer.
  Thats the answer. (Gertrude Stein, 1874-1946)
• The vital question today is not whether there
  will be life after death, but whether there was
  life before death. (Marshall McLuhan, 1911-1990)

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Visual Paradox
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• References
• Brooks, Cleanth. "The Language of Paradox."
  Contemporary Literary Criticism Literary and
  Cultural Studies. Eds. Robert Con Davis, and
  Ronald Schleifer. New York Longman, 1989, 32-42.
• Falletta, Nicholas. The Paradoxicon. New York,
  NY John Wiley, 1983.
• Fry, William F., Jr. "Humor and Paradox."
  American Behavioral Scientist. 30.1 (1987)
  42-71.
• Gans, Eric. Signs of Paradox, Irony, Resentment,
  and Other Mimetic Structures Stanford, CA
  Stanford University Press, 1997.
• Hofstadter, Douglas R. Godel, Escher, Bach An
  Eternal Golden Braid. New York, NY Vintage
  Books, 1980.
• Leiber, Justin. Paradoxes. London, England
  Duckworth, 1993.
• Morreall, John. Aristotle and the Paradox of
  Tragedy. Delta Epsilon Signa Journal 24.2
  (1979) 50-56.

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• Nilsen, Don L. F. "Parody, Paradox, Nonsense, and
  Legends." Humor Scholarship A Research
  Bibliography. Westport, CT Greenwood, 1993,
  101-112.
• Nilsen, Don L. F. "'The Seriousness of Humor' And
  Other Antithetical Paradoxes." California English
  20.5 (1984) 14-15 and 22.
• Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen.
  Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor.
  Westport, CT Greenwood, 2000.
• Rescher, Nicholas. Paradoxes. Peru, IL Carus
  Publishing Company, 2001.
• Poundstone, William. Labyrinths of Reason
  Paradox, Puzzles, and the Frailty of Knowledge.
  New York Anchor, 1988.

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• Seward, Samuel S. Jr. The Paradox of the
  Ludicrous. Stanford, CA Stanford Univ Press,
  1930.
• Shaw, David W. Elegy and Paradox. Baltimore, MD
  Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
• Shershow, Scott Cutler. Laughing Matters The
  Paradox of Comedy. Amherst Univ of Mass Press,
  1986.
• Stainsbury, Richard Mark. Paradoxes. Cambridge,
  England Press Syndicate of the University of
  Cambridge, 1988.
• Woodcock, George. The Paradox of Oscar Wilde.
  London, England T. V. Boardman, 1949.