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  • The Pun Also Rises

  • How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics
  • Written by: John Pollack
  • Narrated by: Pete Larkin
  • Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

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The Pun Also Rises

Written by: John Pollack
Narrated by: Pete Larkin
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Publisher's Summary

The pun is commonly dismissed as the lowest form of wit, and punsters are often unpopular for their obsessive wordplay. But such attitudes are relatively recent developments. In The Pun Also Rises, John Pollack - a former World Pun Champion and presidential speechwriter for Bill Clinton - explains why such wordplay is significant: It both revolutionized language and played a pivotal role in making the modern world possible.

Skillfully weaving together stories and evidence from history, brain science, pop culture, literature, anthropology, and humor, The Pun Also Rises is an authoritative yet playful exploration of a practice that is common, in one form or another, to virtually every language on earth. At once entertaining and educational, this engaging book answers fundamental questions: Just what is a pun, and why do people make them? How did punning impact the development of human language, and how did that drive creativity and progress? And why, after centuries of decline, does the pun still matter?

©2011 John Pollack (P)2011 Tantor

What the critics say

"With his compelling narrative style, Pollack unearths hard evidence that the noble pun is much more than a literary step-child or linguistic anomaly. And as a practitioner of the art and artifice of wordplay himself, John naturally dedicates a bit of spice to peppering and assaulting us with a few subtle zingers of his zone." (Gary Hallock, producer of the O.Henry Pun-Off World Championships)
"Anyone with an interest in language is going to find this book fascinating." (David Crystal, author of How Language Works)

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