Probably my favorite bits of this book were the introductions before each chapter. You really got a sense of how much Lipton loved words and the hunt for new terms of venery and really, it was just lovely to read. I was astonished at some of the terms that have been around since the 15th century and even more impressed as Lipton related some of his searches as he tried to discover just what some of them meant and how they came to be called their term.

However, while usually terms of venery excite me and incite a desire to memorize each and every one, I found quite a number of Lipton's own terms to be devoid of creating this desire. But there were a few that garnered a chuckle or a effort to memorize the term. Unfortunately, I was unable to write them down and will have to re-acquire this book so as to do so.

Even though I did not love this book as much as I thought I would, I am now far more interested in the game of creating the terms and would love to play a "chase" with my sisters. Somehow I think Lipton would be ecstatic at that turn of events.

An excellent book that at its heart is just a very long list of collective nouns, referred to by Mr. Lipton as terms of venery both real and fanciful.  The first half of the book are terms culled from history and the second half, more modern creations.

 

I'm a fan of James Lipton's Inside the Actor's Studio but he writes much like he talks and I admit it doesn't work for me as well on the page as it does from the stage.  It's not an easy-reading style and he happily bogs himself down in references, quotes, and citations.  My mind wandered a few times as the tone of the writing got awfully close to an academic conference presentation.

 

Still, there's a lot of fun, interesting information here for anyone curious about the history of language, and Mr. Lipton celebrates the possibilities at the end of the book, by including games for creating your own terms of venery, complete with rules, scoring, and variations for speed.  His index of terms in the back includes blank spaces next to each noun so that the owner of the book can save his own terms for posterity.

 

I can't say the book was a joy to read, but it was informative, interesting and well organised.  I'm going to enjoy having it on my shelf and can easily see it being an oft used reference.

Loved this book. It’s a linguistic treatise about the names for groups: groups of various animals, or groups of people of various professions or social circles, or groups of abstract concepts. A Comedy of Errors is in this book (yes, it’s a group name, created by Shakespeare, not the genre name). So is a School of Fish or a Barrel of Monkeys or an Exaltation of Larks. It includes over 1000 terms, some more established than others.

Lipton writes about his sources for this book, some of them from 15th century, and its instant, unexpected by the author, success. In his opinion, the group names he lists in his book are both poetry and a game. He participated in the game too, creating several group names, and he encourages everyone to pitch in.

The book is funny. It’s thoughtful. It’s written in English so beautiful and rich I wanted to cry from joy, just as I laughed at its puns or winced at its insights. It’s also very well researched and extremely quotable. Since 1968, when it was first published, the book has enjoyed multiple editions and never been out of print. New copies are still available on Amazon. Below are a few quotes.

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Obviously, at one time or another, every one of these terms had to be invented—and it is also obvious that much imagination, wit and semantic ingenuity has always gone into that invention: the terms are so charming and poetic it is hard to believe their inventors were unaware of the possibilities open to them, and unconscious of the fun and beauty they were creating.

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…every one of the terms you will find in Parts II and III of this book has an equal claim on our respect and loyalty. The fact that many of them have slipped out of our common speech can only, I think, be described as lamentable. There is little enough poetry in our speech (and lives) to continue to ignore a vein as rich as this. … The thesis of this book can be summed up very simply: when a group of ravens flaps by, you should, if you want to refer to their presence, say, “There goes an unkindness of ravens.” Anything else would be wrong.

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The heart and soul of this book is the concern that our language, one of our most precious natural resources, is also a dwindling one that deserves at least as much protection as our woodlands, wetlands and whooping cranes.

With the keenest, most powerful linguistic instrument at our disposal, our language shrinks, not at the highest level of intellectual life, where the endangered species is bred and kept alive, like Siberian tigers in a zoo, but at nearly every level below it. Motion pictures, radio and television, contemporary language’s primary delivery systems, deliberately, by tacit fiat, make do with the vocabulary of the common denominator toward which they are aimed, a legitimate business strategy, a damaging linguistic one. By the age of nineteen, the average American has logged 11,000 hours in school and 15,000 hours in front of the television tube, listening to the same few hundred hackneyed words in listless rotation.

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Forty years ago, Oscar Hammerstein grumbled that if as and like were interchangeable, Shakespeare would’ve called it Like You Like It; it’s as well Hammerstein didn’t live to hear today’s ubiquitous “like.” Quite unique, less perfect and most fatal are reduced to absurdity by adding qualifiers to unmodifiable adjectives.

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 Lipton bemoans the slow simplification of the English language, from Shakespeare to Twitter. I share his concern. And I enjoyed his book.  

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

First off Inside Inside was a difficult book to get through BUT is very well worth the read for any Inside the Actors Studio fan that wants to know more about James Lipton himself and the company that came to be and become the Actors Studio.
Very informative and not to be taken lightly this is a very serious read.

Some readers thought this was supposed to be a 'tell all' about the Actors Studio and its guests. They may have been confused by the 'Inside, Inside' title. Anyone who has seen James Lipton's interviews should know that he isn't a gossip monger but, is actually in search of the creative process and how it is born and develops in his guests and students lives. This book is an excellent 'tell all' about his creative development throughout both his life and the guests and students he's encountered during his own self discovery as an artist.

Now you may need to use a dictionary to define and explain some of his prose while reading...I did. I persevered (it took me about a chapter and a half) and discovered what a brilliant writer he is. It's worth the time and effort.

I can not explain how or even when it happened but, while I was reading through chapters 6, 7, & 8, I decided to become a writer. I realized that what was holding me back from giving it my all was the very thing that defines me as a writer. My greatest weakness needed to be used as my greatest asset; my impatience. I am curious to see what I can learn throughout my own creative journey and I have James Lipton to thank for it.

I wish I understood why...

Devlin