Perhaps as far back as the onset of human speech pithy phrases have been uttered by ... well, who knows? And so we have, to date, a plethora of works by those known only as Anonymous.
For instance:
“Anonymous is really just a name for someone who had something great to say, but was not famous enough for anyone to remember their real name.” Anonymous
“The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.” Anonymous
“Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.” Anonymous
I’ve known some who got a quiet giggle from hearing their own brilliant, uncredited witticism spoken casually by others, but I suspect that most of us wouldn’t mind being credited for an axiom.
Once, while in a creative writing class in college where we shared and discussed our own poetry, and I asked my professor to keep my poems anonymous so I could hear unbiased critiques.
He allowed this to go on for several weeks, but at which point he pointed out how unfair my little experiment was to the other students in that class. I sighed, but acquiesced, because he was right.
The following week he read one of my new poems and then said, “Would the writer like to say a word of two?” Heads spun around, searching, but there were only my fellow students and I present.
Slowly, I began to speak. Suddenly, there were gasps and shocked expressions everywhere. All had assumed that my works were anonymously published, so I’d gotten their honest opinions.
Still, mine had been the only unavowed poems shared that entire term, and it was rather dishonest, but it certainly goes to show that occasionally one can actually benefit from being anonymous.
Image: CU Family Medicine
For instance:
“Anonymous is really just a name for someone who had something great to say, but was not famous enough for anyone to remember their real name.” Anonymous
“The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.” Anonymous
“Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.” Anonymous
I’ve known some who got a quiet giggle from hearing their own brilliant, uncredited witticism spoken casually by others, but I suspect that most of us wouldn’t mind being credited for an axiom.
Once, while in a creative writing class in college where we shared and discussed our own poetry, and I asked my professor to keep my poems anonymous so I could hear unbiased critiques.
He allowed this to go on for several weeks, but at which point he pointed out how unfair my little experiment was to the other students in that class. I sighed, but acquiesced, because he was right.
The following week he read one of my new poems and then said, “Would the writer like to say a word of two?” Heads spun around, searching, but there were only my fellow students and I present.
Slowly, I began to speak. Suddenly, there were gasps and shocked expressions everywhere. All had assumed that my works were anonymously published, so I’d gotten their honest opinions.
Still, mine had been the only unavowed poems shared that entire term, and it was rather dishonest, but it certainly goes to show that occasionally one can actually benefit from being anonymous.
Image: CU Family Medicine
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