{"id":124343,"date":"2018-04-17T11:05:31","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T15:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=124343"},"modified":"2018-04-17T13:08:10","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T17:08:10","slug":"schlemihls-and-water-sprites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/","title":{"rendered":"Schlemihls and Water Sprites"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We\u2019re all probably familiar with Muggles and mugwumps, and happy to point out a Catch-22, knowing very well which books these come from. We\u2019ll casually talk of utopia or pandemonium or describe something as gargantuan while only distantly remembering that More, Milton, and Rabelais coined the terms. The geekier among us will never miss a chance to point out that robot<\/em> and cyberspace<\/em> were the inventions of science-fiction writers. Chortle<\/em> has passed so easily into English that not many know it was actually one of Lewis Carroll\u2019s portmanteaus (and yes, Carroll invented portmanteau<\/em> as well). And that\u2019s not even getting on to Shakespeare\u2019s legendary level of coinage. Writers\u2019 imaginary words slip easily into reality.<\/p>\n

I first came across the word schlemihl<\/em>\u00a0on the first page of Thomas Pynchon\u2019s\u00a0V<\/em>: \u201cIn which Benny Profane, a schlemihl and human yo-yo, gets to an apocheir.\u201d While I\u2019m still not quite sure what an \u201capocheir\u201d is, \u201cschlemihl\u201d seemed perfectly clear\u2014at the time I read V<\/em>, the concept of the slacker was much in vogue, and one with which I readily identified. While I didn\u2019t for a minute think that Pynchon had coined the word, (correctly) assuming it to be one of the many Yiddish words that have made it into common U.S. usage, schlemihl<\/em>\u00a0probably moved from an oral culture into a wider written one due to a once hugely popular book, now almost entirely forgotten. Perhaps the verbally voracious Pynchon had read it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

*<\/em><\/p>\n

Peter Schlemihl<\/em>, by Adelbert von Chamisso, was first published in Germany in 1813. The titular Peter is indeed a hapless lad, tempted into making a bargain with a strange \u201cman in grey \u2026 who looks like a bit of thread blown from a tailor\u2019s needle.\u201d He offers Peter endless gold in exchange for\u2014what? Merely his shadow.<\/p>\n

Of course, it doesn\u2019t work out well. Peter soon finds that despite his bottomless wealth, without a shadow he is shunned from all kinds of society, polite and otherwise.<\/p>\n

Chamisso acknowledges no source for his protagonist\u2019s name, and while it certainly is <\/em>Yiddish (though more commonly spelled schlemiel<\/em>), its origins are debated\u2014some claim it\u2019s from the Hebrew term\u00a0shelo mo’il<\/em>, meaning “useless,” and others that it\u2019s derived from the name Shelumiel<\/em>, an Israeli chieftain. One thing is clear: the word hardly appears in print until the year Chamisso published his book. Thereafter it became extremely common, almost certainly spread by the novel\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

Chamisso was born in France in 1781, yet his family, threatened by the Revolution, was soon after forced to flee. They eventually settled in Berlin, where the young Adelbert grew up among an artistic set. He later joined the Prussian army and found himself going to war against his native France. He was taken prisoner and remained in France, working his way into Madame de Sta\u00ebl\u2019s literary circle. He spent much of his life like this, neither here nor there, without a real home or nation, a yo-yo, a Schemihl. In the second part of the novel, Peter travels the world with the help of magical seven-league boots, much as Chamisso later joined a Russian scientific expedition, circumnavigating the globe. Peter never finds a home, as he has no shadow. While the Yiddish schlemiel is irredeemably unlucky, pursued by misfortune yet also responsible for his own chumpishness, Chamisso\u2019s Schlemihl is a permanent exile.<\/p>\n

It is in this way that the book, though now little known, has left its trace: in its depiction of the split self. It is a kind of doppelg\u00e4nger story. (The word doppelg\u00e4nger<\/em>, of course, was coined by the novelist Jean Paul in 1796.) Peter\u2019s separation from his shadow leaves him diminished, yet he gains the almost constant companionship of the \u201cgrey man.\u201d But this strange figure is more than a Mephistophelian trickster; he is an aspect of Peter\u2019s soul, his other or inner self. \u201cI just act the way you are thinking,\u201d the grey man says. He\u2019s a subconscious, a (reasonably polite) id.\u00a0Peter Schlemihl<\/em> prefigures The Strange Case of\u00a0<\/em>Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde<\/em>, The Portrait of Dorian Grey,<\/em> Dostoyevsky\u2019s The Double<\/em>, and Poe\u2019s \u201cWilliam Wilson.\u201d Kafka possessed an annotated copy; this figure\u2014deprived of his shadow, battling against forces he scarcely comprehends\u2014must have appealed to the Czech writer.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

With such subterranean influence, Peter Schlemihl<\/em> is much like another even more successful book by Chamisso\u2019s close friend, the splendidly named Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte, Baron Fouqu\u00e9. Friedrich (let\u2019s call him that for convenience\u2019s sake) was a writer, editor, publisher, and networker of the period (with a vast private income, which always helps with such enterprises). He was disturbingly prolific, and his most famous book brought another previously obscure term into wider use: u<\/em>ndine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Undine<\/em>, which Merriam-Webster<\/em> defines as \u201cwater nymph,\u201d is an ancient word, first used by the Renaissance alchemist and physician Paracelsus in the fifteenth\u00a0century, but its concept is widespread: no culture is without its nereids, naiads, and nixies, its selkies, sprites, sylphs, and sirens. Whatever they are called or wherever they are found, they usually spell trouble.<\/p>\n

Friedrich pulled on a passage from Paracelsus\u2019s work Liber de Nymphis<\/em>, in which he relates how the undine, the invisible elemental spirit of water, can take human form and acquire a soul by marrying a human. In Friedrich\u2019s novel, the noble Germanic knight Huldbrand is entranced by the playful yet wayward Undine and eventually forced to choose between her and a genuine human, the honest Bertalda. For those of you planning to have a go at the book, I\u2019ll avoid spoilers, but suffice to say it doesn\u2019t end well.<\/p>\n

Undine<\/em>\u2019s success can partly be traced in its range of influence. In the nineteenth\u00a0century, undine<\/em>\u00a0became the go-to word to describe a water spirit. The novel inspired several operas (by E.\u2009T.\u2009A. Hoffmann, Tchaikovsky, and Dvo\u0159\u00e1k), piano suites by Ravel and Debussy, and a host of Romantic paintings, and it fed back into retold tales by Hans Christian Anderson and the Grimm Brothers. Melodramatic stage adaptations proliferated. It is estimated that there were more than a hundred versions of the book in circulation in English by the end of the nineteenth century, translated by luminaries such as Edmund Gosse and lusciously illustrated by Arthur Rackham. The book is cited on the first page of Little Women<\/em>, when Jo announces her intention to buy it as soon as she can (along with another of Friedrich\u2019s novels, Sintram<\/em>).<\/p>\n

While undine<\/em>\u00a0may now be only one name among many for aqueous female spirits, it persists. Being bookishly weird, I first came across the word in the title of a Seamus Heaney poem, though I was also distantly aware of Robert Olivo, the decidedly more corporeal star of Andy Warhol\u2019s films, who went by the stage name Ondine. I suspect it is not the word that has been the most lasting influence of Friedrich\u2019s novel, however, but the character type he created. The dazzling beauty but untouchability, the playfulness mixed with danger surely figure not only in the trope of the femme fatale but also the more recent manic pixie dream girl.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

So despite their reach, why are both books largely forgotten now? Peter Schlemihl <\/em>starts out with clarity and directness. The odd events unfold in a matter-of-fact manner. It has a great formal construct (written as letters from Peter to Chamisso himself), but after its striking incipit (the separation from the shadow), it loses its way somewhat and ends up rambling (much like Peter and Chamisso themselves). There is also the fact that its progeny, whether Gogol or Poe or Kafka, are quite simply much better. Undine<\/em> was a more challenging read for this modern reader, not only because of its length and its rather weary diction but due to the ironic fact that it reads as being rather derivative. Its solid narrative blocks today feel well-worn and melodramatic; being the first to do something doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you\u2019re the best. Undine<\/em> never escapes the clich\u00e9s that it helped to propagate.<\/p>\n

And yet in any story where a manic pixie dream girl meets a likable slacker or a misfit meets a mystery, we are in the presence of schlemihls and undines. Chamisso certainly didn\u2019t invent either the word schlemihl<\/em> or its concept, nor Fouqu\u00e9 the undine<\/em>, but there is a back and forth between the oral tradition and print culture that can establish not only words but also characters and narrative archetypes in a collective consciousness. Authors read, then write, and others then reread, rewrite, review, and retell their stories, sometimes using the original author\u2019s words or freely adapting when necessary, often scarcely aware of exactly quite what they\u2019re drawing on. What is original or even authentic dissipates, lingering like a ghostly presence. We forget that the words and stories that help compose us have lived many other lives before they found their way into ours.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

C.\u2009D. Rose<\/span> is the author of <\/em>Who\u2019s Who When Everyone Is Someone Else and the editor of<\/em> The Biographical Dictionary of Literary Failure (both out now from Melville House).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  We\u2019re all probably familiar with Muggles and mugwumps, and happy to point out a Catch-22, knowing very well which books these come from. We\u2019ll casually talk of utopia or pandemonium or describe something as gargantuan while only distantly remembering that More, Milton, and Rabelais coined the terms. The geekier among us will never miss […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1467,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7032],"tags":[33767,922,9582,33764,33762,33766,11243,33763,33761,33765,2272],"class_list":["post-124343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-out-of-print","tag-adelbert-von-chamisso","tag-andy-warhol","tag-e-t-a-hoffmann","tag-edmund-gosse","tag-friedrich-heinrich-karl-de-la-motte","tag-liber-de-nymphis","tag-little-women","tag-paracelsus","tag-peter-schlemihl","tag-robert-olivo","tag-tchaikovsky"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSchlemihls and Water Sprites<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Writers\u2019 imaginary words slip easily into reality and become part of our language long after the book itself has been forgotten.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Schlemihls and Water Sprites by C. D. Rose\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 17, 2018 \u2013   We\u2019re all probably familiar with Muggles and mugwumps, and happy to point out a Catch-22, knowing very well which books these come from. We\u2019ll\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-17T15:05:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-04-17T17:08:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/schlemiel-hp.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"557\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"C. D. Rose\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"C. D. Rose\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"C. D. Rose\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2dc6e2a2d754326bfaccd147e37ce868\"},\"headline\":\"Schlemihls and Water Sprites\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-17T15:05:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-17T17:08:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/\"},\"wordCount\":1551,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/schlemiel-hp.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Adelbert von Chamisso\",\"Andy Warhol\",\"E.T.A. Hoffmann\",\"Edmund Gosse\",\"Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte\",\"Liber de Nymphis\",\"Little Women\",\"Paracelsus\",\"Peter Schlemihl\",\"Robert Olivo\",\"Tchaikovsky\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Out of Print\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/\",\"name\":\"Schlemihls and Water Sprites\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/schlemiel-hp.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-17T15:05:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-04-17T17:08:10+00:00\",\"description\":\"Writers\u2019 imaginary words slip easily into reality and become part of our language long after the book itself has been forgotten.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/schlemiel-hp.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/schlemiel-hp.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Schlemihls and Water Sprites\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2dc6e2a2d754326bfaccd147e37ce868\",\"name\":\"C. D. Rose\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d9e0ceef14b5e986efa76b4f74c3f4f7c2a053baf7b6c3590d9992471db4b8f1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d9e0ceef14b5e986efa76b4f74c3f4f7c2a053baf7b6c3590d9992471db4b8f1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"C. D. Rose\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/cdrose\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Schlemihls and Water Sprites","description":"Writers\u2019 imaginary words slip easily into reality and become part of our language long after the book itself has been forgotten.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Schlemihls and Water Sprites by C. D. Rose","og_description":"April 17, 2018 \u2013   We\u2019re all probably familiar with Muggles and mugwumps, and happy to point out a Catch-22, knowing very well which books these come from. We\u2019ll","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2018-04-17T15:05:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-04-17T17:08:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":557,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/schlemiel-hp.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"C. D. Rose","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"C. D. Rose","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/"},"author":{"name":"C. D. Rose","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2dc6e2a2d754326bfaccd147e37ce868"},"headline":"Schlemihls and Water Sprites","datePublished":"2018-04-17T15:05:31+00:00","dateModified":"2018-04-17T17:08:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/"},"wordCount":1551,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/schlemiel-hp.jpg","keywords":["Adelbert von Chamisso","Andy Warhol","E.T.A. Hoffmann","Edmund Gosse","Friedrich Heinrich Karl de la Motte","Liber de Nymphis","Little Women","Paracelsus","Peter Schlemihl","Robert Olivo","Tchaikovsky"],"articleSection":["Out of Print"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/","name":"Schlemihls and Water Sprites","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/schlemiel-hp.jpg","datePublished":"2018-04-17T15:05:31+00:00","dateModified":"2018-04-17T17:08:10+00:00","description":"Writers\u2019 imaginary words slip easily into reality and become part of our language long after the book itself has been forgotten.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/schlemiel-hp.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/schlemiel-hp.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/17\/schlemihls-and-water-sprites\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Schlemihls and Water Sprites"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2dc6e2a2d754326bfaccd147e37ce868","name":"C. D. Rose","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d9e0ceef14b5e986efa76b4f74c3f4f7c2a053baf7b6c3590d9992471db4b8f1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d9e0ceef14b5e986efa76b4f74c3f4f7c2a053baf7b6c3590d9992471db4b8f1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"C. D. Rose"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/cdrose\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1467"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124343"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124365,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124343\/revisions\/124365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}