Pysma (pys’-ma): The asking of multiple questions successively (which would together require a complex reply). A rhetorical use of the question.
“There are more questions than answers in this life.” Sore
Sore (Valde in Latin) was a Roman philosopher who practiced his art sometime in 1 A.D. He earned his nickname from the nearly terminal case of diaper rash he had when he was 11 years old. A Soothsayer told him to stop wearing diapers and work with a professional potty trainer, and he would be cured. He followed the Soothsayer’s advice and the rash was gone, but not the nickname.
The quotation above is the only “answer” he ever gave. He held lessons during the summer months under an ancient fig tree; a representation of aged wisdom, a site of sunlight dimmed by leaves and branches giving the area beneath them a quality of gravitas and a lower temperature than the hills outside their embrace, and there were branches laden with delightful sweet fruit snacks, there for the picking & eating. Across global cultures and ancient history, the fig symbolizes “fertility, abundance, prosperity, spiritual enlightenment, and hidden wisdom. Because the flower blooms entirely out of sight inside the fruit, the fig is also a powerful metaphor for going inward and uncovering inner truths.” (Google) Our saying “Figure it out” is attributed to 16th century English fig worshippers.
The tree was located on the Palantine Hill about 100 meters down from the Lupercal, where Romulus and Remus were found by the she-wolf Lupa (Wikipedia). Sore filled his flask every day from the Lupercal, a bubbling con gasso spring. The water fizzed on his tongue and sustained him as he did what he did.
When his students had gathered under the fig tree, Sore began the lesson. Unlike other philosophers who favored dialogue, Sore favored monologue. He would rapidly ask questions nonstop for forty-five minutes, eat a fig, and leave. His rapid fire delivery of questions precluded students from answering him.
Below is a partial listing of some of Sore’s philosophically powerful questions:
What is the sound of one hand?
How many toothpicks can dance on a bald man’s head?
Where do the roots of all evil grow?
Why does the wind cry Mary?
Who put the bomp in the bomp bompa bomp?
Does reality consist of glitter and the annoyed?
Have you drunk a Piña Colada and taken a walk in the rain?
Are you experienced?
Does anybody know what time it is?
Who is John Gault?
Are you a person or a participle?
What do you like about bullhorns?
This is a partial list of questions from Lesson 413. The entire list consists of 114 questions asked in rapid sequence, leaving an unbroken strand of wonder woven into student’ heads.
One of the last places Sore’s strategy is employed is in the questioning witnesses in House and Senate hearings, where Senators and Representatives have little time to question witnesses and wait for their rambling, obfuscations. Sore’s strategy is used mainly to “go on the record” with concerns—sort of like “begging” the question to implicate witnesses in the misdeeds the questions imply. For example, “When will you stop screwing your intern?” “When will you stop stealing taxpayer dollars?” “How much did you pay Epstein to ‘meet’ underage girls?”
Good questions may take us down more, more exciting, and better slippery slopes than answers ever will. They enhance a speaker’s ethos by seeming to encourage and empower listeners to find their own answers, if they can remember the hundreds of question posed in a given discourse.
Anyway, “There are more questions than answers in this life.” Sore
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