“Shouldness is being flouted here,” said Launcelot. “Shouldness is perhaps self-explanatory, but I have never seen it adequately dealt with, either in print or in the lecture hall. When that huntress got me in the bum with an arrow, it was an offense to shouldness. It shouldn’t have gone that way. I told the story to Sir Roger, and now he never tires of telling it, tells it to everyone who comes down the pike. That a knight of the Round Table could be pierced in that way by a female has a significance quite apart from the ludicrous. It’s in the realm of those things which should not happen—a category which holds much philosophical interest, as anyone who has ever looked into anomaletics will recognize. The insult to my dignity was not nearly so grave as the insult to shouldness.”

—  Donald Barthelme

Source: The King (1990), p. 106.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Shouldness is being flouted here,” said Launcelot. “Shouldness is perhaps self-explanatory, but I have never seen it ad…" by Donald Barthelme?
Donald Barthelme photo
Donald Barthelme 67
American writer, editor, and professor 1931–1989

Related quotes

Oliver Goldsmith photo

“Oh sir! I must not tell my age.
They say women and music should never be dated.”

Oliver Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer

She Stoops to Conquer (1771), Act III

Emma Donoghue photo

“This is a bad story.”
“Sorry. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have told you.”
“No, you should,” I say.
“But—”
“I don’t want there to be bad stories and me not know them.”

Emma Donoghue Room

Source: Room

Geoff Dyer photo

“I should have been happy—I was being paid to be here—but happiness does not respond to that kind of imperative; it is no good telling yourself you should be happy.”

Geoff Dyer (1958) English writer

Source: Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It (1993), p. 225

Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet photo

“I remember Lord Eldon saying to counsel, " You have told us how far the cases have gone, will you now tell us where they are to stop?" I think it is now time that we should say where the cases are to stop.”

Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet (1783–1870) British lawyer and Tory politician

Phillips v. Briard (1856), 4 W. R. 487.

Janet Fitch photo

“How can I shed tears for a man I should never have allowed to touch me in any way?”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Billy Davies photo

“Under no circumstances will any supporter try to tell me what I should do. That is why I have the track record that I have got.”

Billy Davies (1964) Scottish association football player and manager

Feb 2010, http://www.thisisnottinghamforest.co.uk/news/Forest-boss-Davies-stand-record/article-1832938-detail/article.html
A response to Forest supporters who booed when he made a substitution at Doncaster Rovers

Charles James Fox photo

“Why Egypt should be of such importance either to the French or to Us I never could discover and I have always thought the Expedition there the foolishest part, perhaps the only foolish part of Bonaparte's Conduct, unless perhaps he had some views in it connected with the internal Politicks of France of which we are not informed, or (which I have always suspected) that he had a desire to be out of the way of either accepting or refusing the command of an army destined to invade England.”

Charles James Fox (1749–1806) British Whig statesman

Letter to H. E. Fox (15 May 1801), quoted in L. G. Mitchell, Charles James Fox (London: Penguin, 1997), p. 168.
1800s

Mary Doria Russell photo

“When it comes down to it, I don't have much in the way of advice to offer you, but here it is: Read to children. Vote. And never buyfrom a man who's selling fear.”

Mary Doria Russell (1950) American novelist

Source: Dreamers of the Day

Related topics