Home > Anecdote

For example, Cary Grant is said to have been rather reluctant to reveal his age to the public, having played the youthful lover for more years than would have been appropriate. One day, while he was sorting out some business with his agent, a telegram arrived from a journalist who was desperate to learn how old the actor was. It read: HOW OLD CARY GRANT? Grant, who happened to open it himself, immediately cabled back: OLD CARY GRANT FINE. HOW YOU?

There is a more sophisticated anecdote concerning Sidney Morgenbesser, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University. One day in New York City, Morgenbesser put his pipe in his mouth as he was ascending the subway steps. A policeman approached and told him that there was no smoking on the subway. Morgenbesser pointed out that he was leaving the subway, not entering it, and that he had not yet lit up. The cop repeated his injunction. Morgenbesser repeated his observation. After a few such exchanges, the cop saw he was beaten and fell back on the oldest standby of enfeebled authority: "If I let you do it, I'd have to let everyone do it." To this the old philosopher replied, "Who do you think you are— Kant?" His last word was misconstrued, and the whole question of the Categorical ImperativeThe philosophical concept of a categorical imperative is central to the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. In his philosophy, it denotes an absolute, unconditional requirement that allows no exceptions, and is both required and justified as an end in itse had to be hashed out down at the police station. Morgenbesser won the argument.

Usually an anecdote is based on real life, an incident involving actual persons or places. However, over time modification in reuse may convert a particular anecdote into a fictional piece. Sometimes humorous, anecdotes are not jokes, because their primary purpose is not to evoke laughter. An anecdote is in the tradition of both the parableA parable is a story that is told to illustrate a religious, moral or philosophical idea. In rhetoric, a parable ('comparison' or 'similitude') was originally the name given by Greek rhetoricians to any fictive illustration introduced in the form of a bri and fableIn its strict sense a fable is a short story or folk tale embodying a moral, which may be expressed explicitly at the end as a maxim. Fable" comes from Latin fabula and shares a root with faber "maker, artificer. Thus, though a fable may be conversational, but is distinct from them in several ways. It need not be a metaphor, but only an illustrative incident. It may or may not have a moral, a necessity in both parable and fable. It is unlikely to use animal characters as the fable usually does.

The word anecdote ("unpublished", literally "not given out") comes from Procopius of Caesarea, the biographer of Justinian IJustinian I born Flavius Petrus Sabbatius ( May 11, 483 November 13/ 14, 565). He served as Eastern Roman Emperor from AD August 1, 527 to November 13/ 14, 565. Life Justinian I was born in a small village called Tauresina ( Taor) in Illyricum (near Skopj, who produced a work entitled Ανεκδοτα (variously translated as Unpublished Memoirs or Secret History), which primarily is a collection of short incidents from the private life of the ByzantineByzantium was the original name of the modern city of Istanbul. Byzantium was originally settled by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzantas. The name "Byzantium" is a Latinization of the original Greek name Byzantion . court. Gradually, the term anecdote came to be applied to any short tale utilized to emphasize or illustrate whatever point the author wished to make.