by James Lipton(New York: Viking, 1991)
Hardcover, 324 Pages, Nonfiction
ABCD Rating: BACKLIST
From the Cover: An “exaltation of larks”? Yes! And a “leap of leopards,” a “parliament of owls,” and “ostentation of peacocks,” a “smack of jellyfish,” and a “murder of crows”! For those who have ever wondered if the familiar “pride of lions” and “gaggle of geese” were only the tip of a linguistic iceberg, James Lipton has provided the definitive answer: here are hundreds of equally pithy, and often poetic, terms unearthed by Mr. Lipton in the Books of Venery that were the constant study of anyone who aspired to the title of gentleman in the fifteenth century. When Mr. Lipton’s painstaking research revealed that five hundred years ago the terms of venery had already been turned into the Game of Venery, he embarked on an odyssey that has given us a “slouch of models,” a “shrivel of critics,” and “unction of undertakers,” a “blur of Impressionists,” a “score of bachelors,” and a “pocket of quarterbacks.” This ultimate edition of An Exaltation of Larks is Mr. Lipton’s brilliant answer to the assault on language and literacy in the last decades of the twentieth century. In it you will find more than 1,100 resurrected or newly minted contributions to the most endangered of all species, our language, in a setting of 250 witty, beautiful, and remarkably apt engravings.
My Review: This is one of those books that makes it into my hands in a roundabout way. A couple of days ago my wife asked me what you call a group of ducks. I didn’t know. We looked it up, and in doing so came across a reference to a book titled An Exaltation of Larks that purported to explain the reasoning behind collective nouns. And it was written by James Inside the Actor’s Studio Lipton. How could I resist? I put it on hold at our local library and it came within a day or two of my requesting it, and now, after just a couple of days, here I am talking about this book.
And, really, I can’t stop talking about this book. An Exaltation of Larks is one of those books that is just fun. Lipton breaks the book into—more or less—three loose section: well-established collective nouns (or titles of venery, as they are officially called), more recent (or less well-established) titles of venery, and unofficial titles of venery that either Lipton himself has coined or that readers have sent in since the first printing of the book. While the first two sections are fascinating and Lipton goes to great lengths to explain some of the more obscure or confusing titles of venery, and while those stories are absolutely fascinating, it is the last section—the unofficial titles (many of them describing modern terms)—where the real fun and humor of venery is found.
Some of my favorites from this section:
- A keyhole of voyeurs
- A falsetto of transvestites
- A handful of gynecologists
- A hive of allergists
- An angst of dissertations
- A culture of epicureans
- A nullity of nihilists
- A drift of lecturers
- A shush of librarians
- A Boo! of teratologists
- A splat of high-jumpers
- An attitude of rappers
- A set of designers (this one is under the “Stage” category)
- A cel of animators
- A cacophony of TV channels
- A glut of commercials
- A deconstruction of post-modernists
- A book of Mormons
- A profit of televangelists
- A click of photographers
Just to name a few.
The best ones, of course, are those that have the delicious play-on-words that, say “a set of designers” (to describe set designers for a stage production, and playing off the legitimate title of venery of set) or a “click of photographers” (playing on the homophonic sounds of click and clique) and “ a cel of animators” (again, the homophonic sounds of cel and cell), but then there are the ones that are just plain funny: “a handful of gynecologists,” “a drift of lecturers” (though this one also has the play-on-words aspect, since drift is a legitimate collective noun), etc., etc.
Even better, Lipton encourages his readers to come up with their own titles of venery, and even has instructions in the back of Exaltation for the Game of Venery (which is a pass-time that has been around, according to Lipton, since the 1400s!).
So, in the spirit of the book, I now give you some of the titles of venery that my wife and I thought of while I was perusing this book:
- A poverty of graduate students
- A confusion of college freshmen
- A cuddle of co-sleepers
- A prick of vaccines (also a pain of vaccines)
- A pride of breastfeeders
- A babble of toddlers (also an exuberance of toddlers, and a tumble of toddlers)
- A snuggle of infants
- An intrusion of C-sections (also an invasion of C-sections)
- A snip of circumcisions
Just to name a few (and to betray our parental philosophies).
While I read this book from cover-to-cover that is by no means the best way to read An Exaltation of Larks. Perhaps this is one of those books to leave lying around and just pick it up every so often and open to a random page and enjoy a page or two of venereal titles (stop snickering, that’s the actual term for them). An Exaltation of Larks is a book that is a lot of fun, and if you, like I, enjoy the possibilities and wittiness and sheer absurdity that the English language can have, then you should probably find yourself a copy of Lipton’s book.
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