levelheaded: The Cat Killed Curiosity

Barbara Campbell’s “The Cat Killed Curiosity” is a series of inverted idioms. The poem’s last sentence, “Now look // what dragged in / the cat” serves as an instruction for readers to consider the weight of each rephrasing that precedes it. Doing so is a lot of fun. It also offers some deeply felt insight into the human experience. Let’s look at some examples.

invention is // the mother of necessity
We’ve all heard the phrase “necessity is the mother of invention,” meaning when you need something, you’re more likely to create it. What Campbell’s lines tell us though is that what we create breeds our need. How many of us needed an iPhone in 1998? How many feel we need one now that the thing exists?

too many // broths can spoil / the cook
Campbell’s soup idiom (sorry—we couldn’t resist) challenges the idea that too many experts can ruin something by suggesting that the more knowledge or experience we gain, the less expert we become. Studied art can stop feeling like art. Think about the time you discovered an amazing restaurant and raved about how good everything was. Now think about the time you went back. The bread was a bit staler, the entree a tad under-seasoned. Which perception was the better one? Which one was unspoiled? If the only restaurant you ever went to was the diner around the corner, and you only went once, we bet you’d five star YELP the hell out of that place (if you only had an iPhone).

Every // silver lining / has a cloud
The optimists like to say “Every cloud has a a silver lining,” but isn’t there some truth in the reverse too? For all the good things that happen in the world, aren’t there some pretty shitty things going on?

sometimes words / speak louder // than actions
Each of the above examples challenges us to consider the meaning of every word. Weighing each word highlights how infrequently we actually do so in our daily lives. The repercussions of our carelessness with language can, of course, be tragic. People die because of the way words are spun.

Now look // what dragged in / the cat
With the turn of a phrase, the hunter becomes the hunted.

– The Editors