RICE-WATER, n. A mystic beverage secretly used by our most popular novelists and poets to regulate the imagination and narcotize the conscience.
Interpretation
This quote humorously suggests that a simple beverage is used by writers to enhance creativity and dull their moral judgment.
Ambrose Bierce's quote presents a satirical take on the creative process, implying that successful writers and poets rely on an ordinary substance, rice-water, to fuel their imagination while also numbing their conscience. This playful characterization suggests that the act of creation might require a certain escapism or detachment from reality, highlighting the sometimes absurd nature of artistic inspiration.
In practice
In a discussion about the struggles of a writer at a literary event.
PALM, n. A species of tree . . . of which the familiar "itching palm" ("Palma hominis") is most widely distributed . . . . This noble vegetable exudes a kind of invisible gum, which may be detected by applying to the bark a piece of gold or silver.
Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.
Indigestion: A disease which the patient and his friends frequently mistake for deep religious conviction and concern for the salvation of mankind. As the simple Red Man of the Western Wild put it, with, it must be confessed, a certain force: 'Plenty well, no pray; big belly ache, heap God.'
Disobey n:To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturity of a command
NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that which merely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon is a bit difficult to locate; it can be apprehended only by a process of reasoning - which is a phenomenon.
PARDON, v. To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. To add to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude.
I think I understand what military fame is; to be killed on the field of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers.
I wish to be cremated. One tenth of my ashes shall be given to my agent, as written in our contract.
That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can't say 'No' in any of them.
I'm sorry, if you were right, I'd agree with you.
If there is a Nora Ephron signature anything it is that there's slightly too much food. I have a friend whose mantra is: You must choose. And I believe the exact opposite: I think you should always have at least four desserts that are kind of fighting with each other.
Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of necessary evil to the luxury of baseball, like the odor that follows an automobile.
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