[Dragaera] Unquoted Brust

Sat Apr 7 21:26:17 PDT 2007

I thought I remembered something like this from Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966). I asked my wife, who wrote her M.A. essay on him, and she said it was approximately "Even paranoids have real enemies", according to the critic Dwight McDonald. 

Since Cobain was born the year after Schwartz died, Steve's right.

m a m

----- Original Message ----
From: Steve Rapaport <steve.rapaport at gmail.com>
To: Mark A. Mandel <thnidu at yahoo.com>
Cc: Dragaera list <dragaera at dragaera.info>
Sent: Saturday, April 7, 2007 5:29:32 PM
Subject: Re: [Dragaera] Unquoted Brust

Oh, is that the "unquoted Brust"?  As Mark says, it's pretty old.   Here it's attributed to Kurt Cobain, though I suspect it was around before he was born: 
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/like/just_because_you-re_paranoid_doesn-t_mean_they/168726/

I like Alan Moore's better:  "Paranoid?  Is that what they're saying about me now?"

From Watchmen, 1987.  Said by the very paranoid Rorschach.

On 07/04/07, Mark A. Mandel <thnidu at yahoo.com> wrote:
J C wrote:

>Unquoted Brust can be found on this page:
>http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/items/tinfoilhat.xml

Howard Brazee remarked:

> I believe that expression is old.

It is, very. I knew it long before SKZB had anything in print.

I checked the American Dialect Society (www.americandialect.org
) mailing list archives and found the following citation from 1974:

>>>

_Human  relations beat_
(
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=1&did=727995892&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=10VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1140053502&clientId=65882)
CONNIE SEALS. Chicago Defender (Big Weekend Edition) (1973-1975). Chicago, Ill.: Dec 21, 1974. p. 24 (1 page) :

As I toured some office the other day, I observed a poster over the desk of
one employee which said, "Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they
aren't out to get you." I think we can all identify with that.

<<<

There are somewhat earlier cites of similar expressions.

If To Reign In Hell was SKZB's first publication, and if it appeared in 1984 -- both are according to his Bibliography page as Writer GOH at LosCon 32 -- that's a ten-year antedate. Steve is brilliant, witty, and original, but not all his wit is original.

-- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian, Orthoëpist, and Philological Busybody
   a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel

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\Steve

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