Abyss Quote by H. L. Mencken
“It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself up out of the dark abyss of pish and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.”
About This Quote
Source Essay: "The Art of the Bad Review", 1915
The writer likens a terrible piece to soggy, stale, chaotic images, yet oddly finds a twisted grandeur in its ascent from mediocrity.
In simple terms: Even awful work can oddly rise to a strange, lofty status.
Key Takeaway
Find humor in the absurdity of bad art.
Themes
humor
critique
absurdity
literary analysis
Mood
wry
playful
Type
literary
critical
When to use this quote
- reading bad literature
- film criticism
- art education
- creative writing
Key Concepts
satire
aesthetic judgment
cultural commentary
Questions to Reflect On
- Why does the reviewer enjoy describing the bad?
- Can absurdity be a form of art?
A Different Perspective
The description may be overly flamboyant, obscuring clear analysis.
![“By profession a biologist, [Thomas Henry Huxley] covered in fact the whole field of the exact sciences, and then bulged through its four fences. Absolutely nothing was uninteresting to him. His curiosity ranged from music to theology and from philosophy to history. He didn't simply know something…” quote by H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f46/h-l-mencken-245_absolutely-nothing_by-profession-a-biologist-thomas-henry-h_5368.jpg)
