{"id":75830,"date":"2014-08-22T14:45:05","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T18:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=75830"},"modified":"2014-08-22T17:06:09","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T21:06:09","slug":"fresh-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/22\/fresh-hell\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresh Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"dorothy-parker-poet\"<\/a>

Dorothy Parker<\/p><\/div>\n

If you wish to celebrate Dorothy Parker\u2019s birthday with a small gift to yourself, you have many options. An Etsy search of the writer\u2019s name will give you letterpress prints and pillows and pins; a locket; earrings, several flasks; a bracelet; a range of portraits, including a cat in a cloche<\/a>; a sampler; and a choice of two dolls<\/a>. And the tote bags! Ah, the tote bags. Need I even mention the tote bags? I am not immune; yesterday, I treated myself to a Dorothy Parker cocktail, made with Dorothy Parker gin. At the Algonquin, no less. (There is also a certain charm to \u201cwhat fresh hell\u201d<\/a> spelled out in Morse Code.)<\/p>\n

Dorothy Parker\u2019s Art of Fiction interview<\/a>, from 1956, has always been among my favorites. She has no interest in glamorizing her reputation. She has scant regard for her much-vaunted wit. From the interview\u2019s introduction: \u201cReaders of this interview … will find that Mrs. Parker had only contempt for the eager reception accorded her wit.\u201d \u201cWhy, it got so bad,\u201d she had said bitterly, \u201cthat they began to laugh before I opened my mouth.\u201d I can\u2019t think of an interview more honest, or more generous. She refuses to call herself a serious writer, saying:<\/p>\n

\n

There\u2019s a hell of a distance between wisecracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words. I didn\u2019t mind so much when they were good, but for a long time anything that was called a crack was attributed to me\u2014and then they got the shaggy dogs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And on the vaunted Round Table: \u201cI wasn\u2019t there very often\u2014it cost too much. Others went. Kaufman was there. I guess he was sort of funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Say what she will, no one can take away from the body of her quotables\u2014or, for that matter, an easy cultural shorthand that reduces her to bons mots. But for my money, there\u2019s no quote that sticks with you quite so much as the final lines of that interview:<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s not the tragedies that kill us, it\u2019s the messes. I can\u2019t stand messes. I\u2019m not being a smartcracker. You know I\u2019m not when you meet me\u2014don\u2019t you, honey?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you wish to celebrate Dorothy Parker\u2019s birthday with a small gift to yourself, you have many options. An Etsy search of the writer\u2019s name will give you letterpress prints and pillows and pins; a locket; earrings, several flasks; a bracelet; a range of portraits, including a cat in a cloche; a sampler; and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[13987,9158,5023,1132,125,165,10395,15076,7782],"class_list":["post-75830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-aphorisms","tag-birthdays","tag-dorothy-parker","tag-interviews","tag-new-york-city","tag-poetry","tag-quotations","tag-the-algonquin-roundtable","tag-the-art-of-fiction"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Best to Celebrate Dorothy Parker\u2019s Birthday<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist was born on this day in 1893.\" \/>\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\/2014\/08\/22\/fresh-hell\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fresh Hell by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"August 22, 2014 \u2013 If you wish to celebrate Dorothy Parker\u2019s birthday with a small gift to yourself, you have many options. 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