hippogriff, a signifier or, preferably, their fathers." - Meaning and context.">
"The Accidental Matriarch", The New York Times (20 May 2001)
“

It makes me itchy, this wry fatalism, but it doesn't make me itch nearly as much as the heroes of so many other modern novels for whom stalking the savage libido is more fun than kinship or community; who will leave town either to find their callow selves, as if they'd lost anything important, or, more transgressively, to kill a bear, a bull, a whale, a unicorn, a hippogriff, a signifier or, preferably, their fathers.

— John Leonard (critic)

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "It makes me itchy, this wry fatalism, but it doesn't make me itch nearly as much as the heroes of so many other modern novels for whom stalking the savage libido is more fun than kinship or community; who will leave town either to find their callow selves, as if they'd lost anything important, or, more transgressively, to kill a bear, a bull, a whale, a unicorn, a hippogriff, a signifier or, preferably, their fathers." in the context of ""The Accidental Matriarch", The New York Times (20 May 2001)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "John Leonard (critic)" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
John Leonard (critic)

About John Leonard (critic)

John Leonard (February 25 1939 – November 5 2008) was an American literary, TV, film and cultural critic.