Ignorance Is Blitz

Book Review

Reviewed by

Troy Simpson

Introduction

Ignorance is Blitz: Mangled Moments of History From Actual College Students (2008), originally published in 2001 as Non Campus Mentis, is well worth its price.

The compilation of student bloopers amused me more than Anders Henriksson's other compilation of student mistakes, College in a Nutskull (2010), and it amused me almost as much as Richard Lederer's best-selling Anguished English (1987).

Here is my attempt at working why I liked Ignorance is Blitz, though not quite as much as I liked Anguished English.

Ignorance is Blitz Contains More Than Mere Mistakes

Most of the student errors in Ignorance is Blitz are true bloopers, whereas many of the student errors collected in College in a Nutskull are mere factual mistakes (see my review of College in a Nutskull for examples). 

True bloopers have more elements in them than mere factual mistakes. Sometimes, the extra element comes from a double meaning, as in these examples from Ignorance is Blitz:

"The invention of the sex tent helped to determine place and orientation at sea" (p 47).

"Francis Drake was permitted by Queen Elizabeth to sail the seas and find illegal things to do with the Spanish" (p 48).

"Oliver Cromwell solved this and other problems by removing prominent things from people who disagreed with him" (p 59).

In other bloopers in Ignorance is Blitz, the extra element comes not from a double meaning but from a humorous absurdity. Examples are:

"[Roman] Senators wore purple tubas as a sign of respect" (p 18).

"Two hundred years of rule by the Tarts explains why Russia became so backward" (p 37).

"The modern piano replaced the clavicle as instrument of choice" (p 66).

"The Ancient Greeks founded the Olympics in about 1896" (p 16).

Leaving this exception aside,  Ignorance is Blitz overwhelmingly passes the main test of any blooper book: the bloopers are funny.

The Bloopers Seem Genuine

The humour in a blooper can quickly disappear if the reader finds out or senses that the blooper has been invented or altered too heavily by the compiler.

In Ignorance is Blitz, Henriksson says he has culled the student mistakes from term papers and blue-book exams written by college and university students (p viii).

One source has been the work of Henriksson's own students, gleaned from papers submitted at a West Virginia state college and at three Canadian research universities.

However, the bulk of the raw material in Ignorance is Blitz has been, according to Henriksson, "harvested by my colleagues from student prose at more than two dozen additional colleges and universities" (p ix).

I have little doubt that some student at some time has at some place written or said each of the individual bloopers collected in Ignorance is Blitz. But we also know from Henriksson himself that Henriksson has taken liberties with the individual bloopers by weaving multiple bloopers together into small, discrete sections (p viii).

I realise that the idea that one student has made all the bloopers in a given section is a deliberate fiction; but, occasionally, the way Henriksson has edited the bloopers makes it hard for me to suspend disbelief.

"Henry VIII divorced his original wife, who had become old and impregnable. Elizabeth I was eventually the daughter of Henry the Ate. Mother to Elizabeth was Ann Beau Lynne, wife of the moment to Henry VIII" (p 46).

I could not believe that the same student would refer to "Henry VIII" in one sentence and then refer to "Henry VIII" as "Henry the Ate" in the next sentence.

Similarly, jamming too many bloopers into one sentence can spoil the illusion. In the following example, multiple bloopers in a single sentence are too good to be true:

"Peace was inforced by the Treaty of Uterus, which prevented the King of France from sitting personally on the Spanish thorn" (p 62).

Perhaps Henriksson should have followed more closely the approach and style of Richard Lederer. Lederer has done an excellent job at pasting together bloopers into a coherent fabric in his "History Of The World According To Student Bloopers" (see my review of Anguished English).  Lederer has stayed very close to the bloopers' original text. Lederer has also mostly kept each blooper to no more than one sentence or clause. He manages a free-flowing, believable chronology.

I would like to know how closely Henriksson has stayed to the bloopers' original text when compiling Ignorance is Blitz. It might have been better had Henriksson left more of the student bloopers untouched and not tried to jam too many bloopers too closely.

But this is nit-picking. For the most-part, Ignorance is Blitz passes the test of genuineness well.

The Bloopers In Ignorance is Blitz Are Fresh — Mostly

I have not read before any of the bloopers in Ignorance is Blitz, at least not in precisely the same form and context. But I wonder whether, in weaving together his chronology, Henriksson has occasionally woven in a few classic bloopers — consciously or unconsciously.

Compare, for example, the following bloopers from Ignorance is Blitz (column A) with "The History Of The World According To Student Bloopers" from Richard Lederer's Anguished English (column B):

The core of other bloopers sprinkled throughout Ignorance is Blitz also feel familiar. For example, compare these bloopers:

These similarities may all be coincidences; students may be repeating the same mistakes.  Or perhaps these bloopers ultimately trace to a common source. A few of the bloopers might even be apocryphal.

The familiarities do not matter too much, except perhaps for the blooper connoisseur, who has heard the substance of some of the bloopers before. But I will always prefer a good and funny, albeit somewhat familiar, blooper to a new blooper that is not funny at all. And the bloopers in Ignorance is Blitz are funny.