Source for a quote

December 26, 2006 9:39 PM

Source of "I ask merely for informational purposes."?

I'm trying to find the source of the quote "I ask merely for informational purposes".

A very similar quote, "I ask merely for information", was apparently originated by Oscar Wilde in The Importance of Being Earnest, and re-used by Douglas Adams in Life, The Universe, and Everything. The quote I'm thinking of might be a naturally occurring variant, but I don't think so.

I seem to recall the "informational purposes" quote appearing in a Larry Niven short story (not Known Space), featuring a hard-boiled detective and a shape-shifting alien who (at first) claims to be an anthropologist. The detective gets shot and the alien says something to the effect of: "Is it normal for red fluid to emerge from holes in your body? I ask merely for informational purposes."

Or maybe I'm making the whole thing up. Hard to tell. Any help from the hive mind here?

posted by tkolar to society & culture (4 comments total)

The Niven story you mention sounds a lot like "The Meddler", which involves a tough PI and a shape-shifting alien, and appears in the N-Space collection. But looking it over, I don't see that line.
posted by Zonker at 5:58 AM on December 27, 2006

The quote I'm thinking of might be a naturally occurring variant, but I don't think so.

Why not? That's certainly how it started. It may be that there's some moderately well known usage that later people are quoting, but it seems to me likely that it's just a naturally occurring variant. It's not like it comes up every day; I'm not sure I've ever seen it used.
posted by languagehat at 8:07 AM on December 27, 2006

Zonker: That was the story. Thanks for looking at it.

languagehat: Given the lack of people coming out of the woodwork to tell me where they've heard the quote, I'm going to have to agree with you.

Weird though. If I sat down to write out the top twenty lines that people quote it would definitely appear, but I seem to be completely at odds with reality here.

Anyway, thanks to the both of you.
posted by tkolar at 3:18 PM on December 27, 2006

The "This is only for informational purposes" or similar verbiage is exceedingly common legalese in "dangerous" or "illegal" books of the "how to make bombs", "how to launder money", etc...

The implication is intrinsically humorous: "This book contains all the information one might hope to acquire if one were interested in making a bomb -- including complete lists of materials and step-by-step directions -- but is in no way, shape, or form intended to give instruction, direction, or assistance; this book is for informational purposes only."

Given that the humorous usages all arise by making use of a similar implication -- I'm going to ask you something which has some extremely obvious ulterior purposes, but insist I'm asking strictly out of idle curiosity -- I find it likely that there's at least some crossover between the legalese and the humorous uses you're interested in.

Given the long history of quackery and pseudoscience in this country I wouldn't be surprised if similar disclaimers have been used in books containing dubious information since before Oscar Wilde's time...
posted by little miss manners at 8:44 PM on December 27, 2006