h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nice.

~jwf~

Yeshua ben Yusef!!!

Thank you for mentioning the commas!


I've been through the thing on a comma hunt, and, if we're still in Guttenberg's age I've saved the old German about a gallon of ink!



Seriously, ~jwf~, thank you. I'm just gearing up for a fairly major real world writing project, and your comma wake up call will be an important and helpful caution. I've realized that I use the things as parsing aids for myself when constructing my pretentiously classical sentences but they aren't necessary in the final thing.

Thank you.

Like many friendly conversationalists,
you use them phonetically.

If not always 'correctly'.
It's more of an accent thing.

For example:

"I've been through the thing on a comma hunt, and, if we're still in Guttenberg's age I've saved the old German about a gallon of ink!"

I think it's more correct as:

I've been through the thing on a comma hunt, and if we're still in Guttenberg's age, I've saved the old German about a gallon of ink!

And it's probably perfect 'English' as:

I've been through the thing on a comma hunt and, if we're still in Guttenberg's age, I've saved the old German about a gallon of ink!

Thank you for reminding me why I resisted Latin after grasping the
essence of its influence on our vocabulary and thought processeaze.


~jwf~

Consider, please, one of the finest sentences in the English Language, the first of Milton's Paradise Lost:

'Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heav'nly Muse,that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow'd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian Mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.'


An ecstasy of punctuation!

Reading Milton will make ya go blind!


~jwf~

Years ago, when staying with my cousin in Watford I enjoyed the privilege Milton never knew . . .


I went to see Milton's cottage.

My major paper on Milton (English 202) was a Socratic Dialog
between a screen writer and an actor who had very different
ways of 'seeing' Paradise Lost.

The actor finally demurs to the writer's insistence on turning
the language into some sort of modern vernacular after he is
able to rationalise that it's better to serve a hellish writer
than rule on the dole.

I got an A+

The only other A+ I ever got was also a cinematic portrayal.
I put an old black man playing a harmonica in the cell next
to Socrates.


~jwf~

'better to serve a hellish writer
than rule on the dole.'



I think I had a bit of a similar approach to my undergraduate (and graduate) writing. I remember sitting quietly, unnoticed in a Classics course on epic poetry for a few weeks and then, as she handed back my first paper on the Odyssey, titled 'Prom Night in Aiaia', the professor said, loudly enough for everyone to hear, 'Who the hell are you?!'. She'd liked my essay.

I think I've mentioned elsewhere the (sadly deleted) passage in my thesis in which the poem is lying etherized upon a table awaiting dissection.

Then of course there's the paper I wrote for a Philosophy of Mind course titled 'Shiva's Face of Glory Locked in Searle's Chinese Room', which is conveniently available here: A60633939


I certainly am able to play the academic game, but I find it much more enjoyable to *play* the academic game.


Now I'm off to see what comment you've made on the Dawkins thread (I'm assuming it's you.)

oh. It wasn't you.

and there it is now! complete with a youtube link.

well, I think I'll put this thing into Peer Review after I finish dinner.

Thanks again, ~jwf~

I'm happy to report that the first two comments are that the first paragraph is too short and there are too few commas.