"But this is neither here nor there why do I mention it? Ask my pen, it governs me, I govern not it"
About this Quote
A confession of irrelevance turns into a manifesto for digression. The speaker declares that what has just been said is neither here nor there, then blithely blames the pen that wrote it. The pose is comic and self-deprecating, yet it also rewrites the terms of authorship. Authority is not a sovereign mind imposing order; it is a hand pulled along by the quick, unruly instrument of language. The pen is personified as governor, the writer reduced to subject, a witty reversal that hints at how style, habit, and the feel of ink on paper can steer thought more than intention does.
This is quintessential Laurence Sterne, especially in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, where narrative advances by detours, apologies, and prefaces within prefaces. By admitting irrelevance and then excusing it, the narrator licenses the digression as part of the experience. Readers are made complicit: the stray path is not an error but the way. Sterne even elsewhere defends digressions as the sunshine of reading, and here he dramatizes how they arise, not from plan but from the unpredictable momentum of writing itself.
The language of governance carries a playful political undertone. Eighteenth-century culture prized reason as a governor of passion and system over caprice; Sterne subverts that ideal by letting the instrument usurp the seat of control. What looks like abdication is also a celebration of creativity as discovery. Thought unfolds in the act of writing; only by moving the pen does the writer learn what wants to be said.
There is also a sly contract with the reader. By foregrounding the process, the narrator promises candor, spontaneity, and surprise. Relevance, in this world, is not fixed in advance but earned by charm and motion. The digression becomes the destination, and the pen’s governance becomes a playful argument for artistic freedom.
This is quintessential Laurence Sterne, especially in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, where narrative advances by detours, apologies, and prefaces within prefaces. By admitting irrelevance and then excusing it, the narrator licenses the digression as part of the experience. Readers are made complicit: the stray path is not an error but the way. Sterne even elsewhere defends digressions as the sunshine of reading, and here he dramatizes how they arise, not from plan but from the unpredictable momentum of writing itself.
The language of governance carries a playful political undertone. Eighteenth-century culture prized reason as a governor of passion and system over caprice; Sterne subverts that ideal by letting the instrument usurp the seat of control. What looks like abdication is also a celebration of creativity as discovery. Thought unfolds in the act of writing; only by moving the pen does the writer learn what wants to be said.
There is also a sly contract with the reader. By foregrounding the process, the narrator promises candor, spontaneity, and surprise. Relevance, in this world, is not fixed in advance but earned by charm and motion. The digression becomes the destination, and the pen’s governance becomes a playful argument for artistic freedom.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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