Lilliputins in English What the Hell Are They?

Lilliputins in English: What the Hell Are They?

"An aphorism never coincides with the truth; it is either a half-truth or a truth-and-a-half."
— Karl Kraus

Liliputins are my new, groundbreaking style of postmodern storytelling—a blend of mockery, sarcasm, paradox, and derision. I coined this term 2005 as a fusion of the adjective "lilliputian" (meaning "very small") and the English idiom "to put words into someone's mouth."

Inspired by S;ren Kierkegaard’s notion that life can only be understood backward, I deliberately and literally put snappy, fabricated quotes and twisted quips into the mouths of great historical figures and celebrated fictional characters. These are words they never spoke, but perhaps could have.

I am like a cuckoo laying its eggs in another bird’s nest, planting my words (liliputins) into the mouths of other people (liliputinists).

In short, liliputins are my own brand of anachronistic and revisionist creations—deliberately framed as fake quotes, counterfeit one-sentence aphorisms, maxims, mini-stories, anecdotes, parables, jokes, and witty remarks. Each piece contains a measure of truth, which I attribute to others to bring the point home. It is up to the reader’s knowledge, intellect, life experience, and convictions to sift truth from fiction.

Liliputins compress time by setting the present and the past on a collision course, blurring the boundaries between the living and the dead, animate and inanimate, earnestness and mockery, reality and fantasy. They also serve as an exceptional vehicle for time travelers and enthusiasts of alternate history.

Liliputins and paradoxes are intimately intertwined, sharing a single purpose: to express a profound truth with punchy, memorable brevity. Like aphorisms, liliputins are, by definition, concise, lapidary declarations of a universal truth or insight. Paradox is essential to the craft of the liliputin, lending the statement its bite and provocative depth.

The technique for creating a liliputin is remarkably simple:

First, craft an original thought no longer than two lines, utilizing wordplay, a pun, a paradox, a misattribution, or a sharp juxtaposition (or any combination thereof).

Second, select a globally renowned figure (living or dead) or an iconic character from world literature or history who could plausibly have uttered such a line, and put the liliputin into their mouth.

Bingo!

In addition, one must not overlook the essential marginalia and glosses, which guide the reader toward grasping the full import of each cuckoo-quote.

Liliputins are timely yet old-fashioned, satirical yet ironic, thought-provoking yet startling. They can be hilarious or sorrowful, vicious or kind, shocking or scandalous, and intensely contentious. Yet they are never dull, always eye-opening, and brief—much like life itself.

As Erma Bombeck once observed: "There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt."

I sincerely hope I have not crossed that line in my book.

Oscar Wilde once remarked: "If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you."

So please, do not kill the mockingbird—or, in my case, the cuckoo!

All the best!

I hope you have as much fun as you can possibly stand!

Yuri V. Slobodenyuk, alias Yury Lobo

Aphorist / Satirist

yuryslobo@yahoo.com

Bio in English: http://stihi.ru/2017/10/04/11144