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Referencing by association

From a talk I attended recently (slightly paraphrased, I was slow off the mark writing the quote down):

> Orson Welles, > Brave New World, anybody read that > book? They have a ministry redefining language so that people can’t talk about political > concepts like going to war.

I was slow off the mark because I was having difficulty remembering the author of the book the speaker really meant. Try it now. Just on the tip of your tongue, isn’t it? But somehow Orson Welles keeps getting in the way… You can kick yourself now. Funny how the similarity blocks remembering the right name so powerfully.

This was written by tikitu. Posted on Saturday, April 22, 2006, at 6:23 pm. Tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

5 Comments

  1. Robert Anton Reese wrote:

    Only it was Huxley who wrote brave new world.

    Monday, April 24, 2006 at 7:07 am | Permalink
  2. tikitu wrote:

    Yup. Only the book he is thinking of is 1984.

    Monday, April 24, 2006 at 10:01 am | Permalink
  3. tikitu wrote:

    Since I happen to be reading it at the moment, and since it’s apropos: from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

    “Why! [said Drawlight,] there was a fellow called Drummond, who saw her at Christmas at a private ball in Leamington Spa, and wagered Lord Carlisle fifty pounds that she would be dead within a month.”

    Mr Lascelles tutted in annoyance and put down his newspaper. “No, no,” he said, “that was not Miss Wintertowne. You are thinking of Miss Hookham-Nix, whose brother has threatened to shoot her, should she bring disgrace upon the family — which everyone supposed she must do sooner or later. But it happened at Worthing — and it was not Lord Carlisle who took the bet but the Duke of Exmoor.”

    Monday, April 24, 2006 at 8:57 pm | Permalink
  4. Ryszard Szopa wrote:

    Well, it worked for me, but whenever I try to repeat the experiment, people immediately say: “No, you meant George Orwell, didn’t you?” And then I feel quite stupid explaining how it should have worked… However, these explanations and my sad face make people laugh, so maybe after all the experiments were not without value. (-;

    Thursday, April 27, 2006 at 12:02 am | Permalink
  5. tikitu wrote:

    Heh. Clouds, silver linings, &c.

    Thursday, April 27, 2006 at 9:43 am | Permalink