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How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics
Gotham
April 2011
On Sale: April 14, 2011
240 pages
ISBN: 1592406238
EAN: 9781592406234
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
A former word pun champion's funny, erudite, and provocative
exploration of puns, the people who make them, and this
derided wordplay's remarkable impact on history. The pun is commonly dismissed as the lowest form of wit, and
punsters are often unpopular for their obsessive wordplay.
But such attitudes are relatively recent developments. In
The Pun Also Rises, John Pollack-a former World Pun Champion
and presidential speechwriter for Bill Clinton-explains why
such wordplay is significant: It both revolutionized
language and played a pivotal role in making the modern
world possible. Skillfully weaving together stories and
evidence from history, brain science, pop culture,
literature, anthropology, and humor, The Pun Also Rises is
an authoritative yet playful exploration of a practice that
is common, in one form or another, to virtually every
language on earth. At once entertaining and educational, this engaging book
answers fundamental questions: Just what is a pun, and why
do people make them? How did punning impact the development
of human language, and how did that drive creativity and
progress? And why, after centuries of decline, does the pun
still matter?
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