Thursday, June 13, 2013

Catchphrases:

I recently read 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth and the main character used this fascinating catchphrase: ''Oh Heavenly Bastard in the Sky.'' Now I have all these questions. Who is this bastard? How does a bastard become heavenly? And most urgently of all, how could I slip that phrase into an actual conversation?

The best characters often have a memorable catchphrase. Augustus "Gus" Waters from The Fault in Our Stars always replied to how are you with "I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up." Sometimes I say that. People kind of like it.

Gus also had a characteristic gesture. He would put a cigarette in his mouth like he was smoking it, but never lit it. It was a metaphor: "you put the killing thing right between your teeth but you don't give it the power to do its killing.”

I'm thinking I need a catchphrase now and perhaps a gesture. There is one catchphrase I made up earlier. When people ask me how I am, I sometimes reply ''between hope and despair.'' And occasionally I greet people by asking ''how's your online love life?''

But I'm thinking I need something better. Something unforgettable, like heavenly bastard.

9 comments:

  1. A bastard is a child born outside of marriage, so some might consider Jesus Christ a bastard. He is heavenly because He is God. I think that may be where the phrase Heavenly Bastard comes from.

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  2. That would make sense. I was thinking Joseph and Mary were married, but maybe they weren't.

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  3. They were eventually, but Joseph wasn't Jesus's father.

    This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:18

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  4. Alright, that must be it. She does use the phrase like an American would when using the phrase Jesus Christ to curse.

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  5. That's the best, offends all the right people.

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  6. She wouldn't want to offend the people that Salman Rushdie did. That's too dangerous.

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  7. Did they ever get to him? They don't seem that dangerous.

    In fact, looks like they were more dangerous to themselves:

    On 3 August 1989, while Mustafa Mahmoud Mazeh was priming a book bomb loaded with RDX explosive in a hotel in Paddington, Central London, the bomb exploded prematurely, destroying two floors of the hotel and killing Mazeh. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salman_Rushdie

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  8. That's called a workplace accident. No, they never got him, but it's not for lack of trying. There is a bounty out for him for 3.3 million dollars. He had to cancel a tour in India last year due to threats on his life.

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