Robert D. Kirvel
Raisin Premise
Only two years before A Raisin opened, Lorraine [Hansberry] gathered all her material for the play in the fireplace and prepared to burn it. Nemiroff [her husband] took the pages away. A few days later, he put the script in front of her, and she went back to work. (The New Yorker, January 24, 2022.)
Addendum
A Raisin in the Sun was nominated for four Tony Awards and named best play of 1958 by the New York Drama Critics’ Circle.
Pet Premise
A legend in Japan describes an excellent dog that saves its master from being poisoned by snatching a roasted duck from the master’s plate, wolfing it down, and promptly dying. This is a story about (a) karma, (b) devotion, or (c) love.
Addendum
Great works of art and literature sometimes mean the opposite of what they appear to say.
Reading Premise
People used to warn that too much reading causes disobedience, heat rash, gout, hemorrhoids, and asthma.
Addendum
We now understand the cause of those ills is socialism.
Jouska Premise
“Jouska” is a term used to describe how some individuals relive an argument repeatedly in their head, akin to a mental tape player stuck on auto-replay.
Addendum
The Welsh novelist and playwright Gwen Thomas once declared, “silence is the only true sanity.”
Incentive Premise
Raising a person’s wage from $10 per hour to $20 will please according to the principle of positive incentive contrast (think carrot). Cutting a wage from $30 to $20 will displease according to the principle of negative incentive or negative contrast (think stick). In both cases, the final wage is $20 per hour.
Addendum
Incentives operate in the context of location and time, and—per Einstein—are relative.
Disagreement Premise
Disagreement with a reasonable person can change minds.
Addendum
Disagreement with a fatuous person will likely make things worse.
Bacon Premise
Richard always grabs six pieces of bacon at breakfast because he knows how much everyone loves bacon.
Addendum
Janie always takes one piece of bacon because she knows how much everyone loves bacon, and she is not a dick.
Americana Premise
Manifest destiny, exceptionalism, karma, savage heathens and beloved slaves, separation of church and state, under God, domino theory, The Greatest Generation, Second Amendment, and, above all, work hard to prosper.
Addendum
Superpatriots tend to mistake metaphors and then salute fabrications as noble truths. To paraphrase Epictetus, you can’t learn about what you are convinced you already know.
ABS Premise
The anti-lock braking (ABS) system installed on most vehicles today was introduced commercially in the 1970s after being touted for reducing stopping distances and limiting skids. An investigator of traffic accidents at the time argued against adopting any form of automated ABS because, “the reduction in skid marks used as evidence would make investigations much more difficult.”
Addendum
The illusion of knowledge by the confident is more dangerous than ignorance.
Girls versus Boys Premise
It’s fine to wear glasses, read a book, play with dolls, or like a girl if you’re a girl.
Addendum
It’s _____ to wear glasses, read a book, play with dolls, or like a boy if you’re a boy.
Conspiracy Premise
Recent studies show half the American population believes in conspiracy theories. A large percentage of the population also believes in aromatherapy, aural cleansing, astrology, colonic irrigation, crystal healing, detoxification, feng shui, flower remedies, macrobiotics, past-life regression, phrenology, or rolfing.
Addendum
The larger problem is not thinking what’s fake is true, but thinking what’s true is fake because then there is no truth. It is possible people do not care for truth.
Friendship Premise
It is an empirical and demonstrable—if paradoxical—fact that your friends, on average, have more friends than you do.
Addendum
Most people have a few friends, but a few people have many, skewing the odds and leading to the paradox.
Planetary Hunger Premise
The Earth and Mars are spinning into the sun according to certain blogs on social media, and the death spiral will be complete when, in 200 years or so, the Sun “eats” the Earth through a planetary digestive process accounting for today’s global warming.
Addendum
Rebel thinkers who invent their own science can mistake ignorance for creativity and advertise their witlessness by emotional farting for an audience.
Gun Premise
Any minute now, radicals will come pounding your door to take your guns and melt them down into abortion clinics run by murderous immigrants preying on the unborn.
Addendum
Every hero requires a villain.
Welfare Premise
To vilify government handouts, Ronald Reagan offered the example of the “Welfare Queen,” a black woman from Chicago who through theft and mindless promiscuity bilked honest taxpayers out of six figures of government funds.
Addendum
The actual woman, a daughter of itinerant sharecroppers, was expelled from an all-white school after the second grade, succeeded at fraud for some $7–8,000 before being caught, and likely suffered from mental illness.
Agency Premise
According to Henry Ford, whether you think you can or you can’t, you are right.
Addendum
According to science, a person’s views are as valid and reliable as are the sources of information.
Always and Everything Premise
Always trust your feelings. Everything will work out in the end.
Addendum
An informed discussion assumes all parties are informed.
Bias Premise
Hungarian mathematician, Abraham Wald, is remembered for what is now called survivorship bias. Analyzing damage to returning WWII aircraft from enemy fire, he observed twice as many bullets hitting fuselage and wings than damaging other places. Military officers thought extra armor should be added to those damaged areas.
Addendum
Abraham Wald pointed out that selectively examining survivors is biased sampling. Planes hit in the most vulnerable areas never came home at all, whereas the massive damage observed on returning aircraft fuselages and wings was, in fact, evidence those areas did not need reinforcing. More armor should be added instead to areas that appeared to get the least damage.
Exploding Head Premise
Unattractive people tend to overestimate their own attractiveness according to a 2020 study published in Cognition and Neurosciences. Incompetent people tend to overestimate their own competency according to the Dunning–Kruger effect described in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Exploding head syndrome (EHS) is a medical condition that can manifest as a lone “firework” while falling asleep or waking up, violent twitches accompanying visual flashes of “lightning,” or a chorus of detonating “bombs.”
Addendum
It is more difficult to understand ourselves than others, but a key question remains: are we doing our best?
Another Relativity Premise
After a few decades of living, many adults are struck by how long a century is.
Addendum
After many decades of living, a century feels rather like the blink of an eye.
Final Ownership Premise
You don’t own your car or underpants. You don’t own your kids or pets. You don’t own your house, your health, or your investments.
Addendum
The only thing you own are words from your mouth or pen.
Robert D. Kirvel has literary works published in six countries and 50 journals. His second book, iWater and Other Convictions, won the Steel Toe Books Prize. @Rkirvel.