Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It

Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Language Arts, Public Speaking, Rhetoric, Entertainment, Humour & Comedy, Jokes & Riddles
Cover of the book Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It by James Geary, W. W. Norton & Company
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Author: James Geary ISBN: 9780393254952
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Publication: November 13, 2018
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company Language: English
Author: James Geary
ISBN: 9780393254952
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication: November 13, 2018
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English

"A witty book about wit that steers an elegant path between waggishness and wisdom." —Stephen Fry

Much more than a knack for snappy comebacks, wit is the quick, instinctive intelligence that allows us to think, say, or do the right thing at the right time in the right place. In this whimsical book, James Geary explores every facet of wittiness, from its role in innovation to why puns are the highest form of wit. Geary reasons that wit is both visual and verbal, physical and intellectual: there’s the serendipitous wit of scientists, the crafty wit of inventors, the optical wit of artists, and the metaphysical wit of philosophers.

In Wit’s End, Geary embraces wit in every form by adopting a different style for each chapter; he writes the section on verbal repartee as a dramatic dialogue, the neuroscience of wit as a scientific paper, the spirituality of wit as a sermon, and other chapters in jive, rap, and the heroic couplets of Alexander Pope. Wit’s End agilely balances psychology, folktales, visual art, and literary history with lighthearted humor and acute insight, drawing upon traditions of wit from around the world.

Entertaining, illuminating, and entirely unique, Wit’s End demonstrates that wit and wisdom are really the same thing.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"A witty book about wit that steers an elegant path between waggishness and wisdom." —Stephen Fry

Much more than a knack for snappy comebacks, wit is the quick, instinctive intelligence that allows us to think, say, or do the right thing at the right time in the right place. In this whimsical book, James Geary explores every facet of wittiness, from its role in innovation to why puns are the highest form of wit. Geary reasons that wit is both visual and verbal, physical and intellectual: there’s the serendipitous wit of scientists, the crafty wit of inventors, the optical wit of artists, and the metaphysical wit of philosophers.

In Wit’s End, Geary embraces wit in every form by adopting a different style for each chapter; he writes the section on verbal repartee as a dramatic dialogue, the neuroscience of wit as a scientific paper, the spirituality of wit as a sermon, and other chapters in jive, rap, and the heroic couplets of Alexander Pope. Wit’s End agilely balances psychology, folktales, visual art, and literary history with lighthearted humor and acute insight, drawing upon traditions of wit from around the world.

Entertaining, illuminating, and entirely unique, Wit’s End demonstrates that wit and wisdom are really the same thing.

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