McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Beginnings
Blitz:
--- Quote from: ToddM326 on June 27, 2006, 03:26:32 PM ---
--- Quote from: Jon Crenshaw on June 26, 2006, 08:17:39 PM ---"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
--- End quote ---
Another board that I read is currently debating the "grammatical correctness" of that first line.
They think that better grammar would be "It was the best and the worst of times."
I think they have too much free time.
--- End quote ---
Or, "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."
Technically it can be broken down into two separate sentences. So to be grammatically correct, you'd need a semi-colon instead of a comma. Or whatever. It's still a good opening.
Jon Crenshaw:
--- Quote from: ToddM326 on June 27, 2006, 03:26:32 PM ---
--- Quote from: Jon Crenshaw on June 26, 2006, 08:17:39 PM ---"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
--- End quote ---
Another board that I read is currently debating the "grammatical correctness" of that first line.
They think that better grammar would be "It was the best and the worst of times."
I think they have too much free time.
--- End quote ---
The thing that they need to consider, is that grammar is constantly changing. What may have been fine two centuries ago, can easily be incorrect by today's standards.
That being said--there's a distinct reason I opted not to finish my M.A. in English--and Another board that I read is currently debating the "grammatical correctness" of that first line. would be indicative of it.
English grad students and PhD's are far too enamored (as a whole) with debating semi-useless arguments to death.
Case in point: There are whole series of arguments in journals over the tranlation of Two. Freaking. Words. in an old english poem called the Battle of Maldon.
Two. Words.
The mind boggles.
Mickey Finn:
Hell, there's been many, many deaths attributed to mistranslations of holy books.
James:
--- Quote from: Jon Crenshaw on June 27, 2006, 08:51:32 PM ---
--- Quote from: ToddM326 on June 27, 2006, 03:26:32 PM ---
--- Quote from: Jon Crenshaw on June 26, 2006, 08:17:39 PM ---"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
--- End quote ---
Another board that I read is currently debating the "grammatical correctness" of that first line.
They think that better grammar would be "It was the best and the worst of times."
I think they have too much free time.
--- End quote ---
The thing that they need to consider, is that grammar is constantly changing. What may have been fine two centuries ago, can easily be incorrect by today's standards.
That being said--there's a distinct reason I opted not to finnish my M.A. in English--and Another board that I read is currently debating the "grammatical correctness" of that first line. would be indicative of it.
English grad students and PhD's are far too enamored (as a whole) with debating semi-useless arguments to death.
Case in point: There are whole series of arguments in journals over the tranlation of Two. Freaking. Words. in an old english poem called the Battle of Maldon.
Two. Words.
The mind boggles.
--- End quote ---
Don't forget the biggest gammatic issue of whether it's right or wrong of modern times, "to boldly go where no man has gone before." ;D
neminem:
So, simply put, yes. I've definitely read enough first-pages-of-books in the bookstore to know that if a first page is boring, I'm probably going to put it down. Conversely, if a first page reads like, well, a page from the Dresden Files, I'm going to drop what I'm doing and continue reading. A lot.
--- Quote from: Steven Pinker, ridiculously brilliant linguist, in The Language Instinct ---"Of course, forcing modern speakers of English to not -- whoops, not to split an infinitive because it isn't done in Latin makes about as much sense as forcing modern residents of England to wear laurels and togas. Julius Caesar could not have split an infinitive if he had wanted to. In Latin the infinitive is a single word like facere or dicere, a syntactic atom. English is a different kind of language. It is an "isolating" language, building sentences around many simple words instead of a few complicated ones. The infinitive is composed of two words -- a complementizer, to, and a verb, like go. Words, by definition, are rearrangeable units, and there is no conceivable reason why an adverb should not come between them:
Space -- the final frontier... These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
To go boldly where no man has gone before? Beam me up, Scotty; there's no intelligent life down here." (386)
--- End quote ---
And Finn is right - the whole killing witches thing? I've always been impressed with that one.
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