Wikiquote talk:Misquotes for comic effect

I take it would be something like a purposeful misquote, in what I do with Philip K. Dick's quote in my sig sometimes?

  • "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away" - Philip K. Dick
  • "Reality is that which, when taken away, you can stop believing in" - Hooloovoo

which I generally both list in a signature.

I think this is a good idea. Dick's original is both comic and profound, and your variant is somewhat more comicly ambiguous. I have had a somewhat similar notion for a page that collects famous quotes that make statements one feels are deficient or flawed, to which one could add comments about why they are considered so, and derivitives that might better satisfy the mind. I had not yet started one because of all manner of other activities lately, and I wasn't sure what a good title would be. Perhaps "Quotes we loathe" or "Quotation Mutations" or "Quotation Chalkboard"
One that since childhood I have found both casually appealing and yet profoundly irritating, is Alexander Pope's "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." —it immediately impresses, sounds good, and perhaps can evoke a prudent measure of thought and moderation by itself going to extremes that are beyond the rational, yet bliss always requires some measure of awareness and emergence beyond states of ignorance. Ignorance is never itself blissful. Though ignorance of some matters can permit some temporary manifestations of bliss, it also permits all manner of confusions that are dangerous and detrimental, and it is never folly to be wise, nor to seek wisdom. It is resting in the presumption of wisdom that is folly, as the verse itself does. The stanzas themselves distort and subvert the fundamental meanings of the words that it uses, and has often been used by people of villainous inclinations or indifference to support all manner of nonsense and evil. It has a measure of poetic worth and genius, but is itself probably more corruptive than enlightening to most who are inclined to delight in the use of it. I especially liked it when one of the villains of The Matrix used a portion of it to dismiss the betrayals he was commiting himself to making in exchange for such shallow bliss as can come to those who don't care much about others. It is a powerful quote, sticks in the mind strongly, but one that it is important to be very wary of accepting. Wisdom produces the ultimate bliss. It is folly to promote ignorance.Kalki 23:18, 2 Jan 2004 (UTC)
Cipher, idd. Matrix feels to me like it brought philosophy to the 'laymen', provoking trains of thought a lot of people would've never went down; which is beside the point except it makes me feel like working on Theme Philosophy quite some :)
On these 'side notes', they will be personal interpretations of any given quote. I know the nature of Wiki is to allow for anyone's input, but in the same way, should this project not be as unbiassed as possible? or is that Wikipedia where entries more obviously have to remain 'literal'?
Quotes Rehash, indicative part(s) of the original quote will still be there (or they'd be not recognized as such but new statements to begin with), Quotation Mutation it has my vote even more so. Then the question is, if naming the section so: Quotation Mutation, where quotes are deliberately altered/massacred for different effect, with/without as you say 'side notes' to them; should then this section here not be redubbed Misquotes causing comic effect and be an overview of the quotes like G W Bush's? - Hooloovoo 00:05, 3 Jan 2004 (UTC)
Return to the project page "Misquotes for comic effect".