[lit-ideas] Re: "I love Carrie. I don't always like her, but I love her"

JL:
>Note that for Grice, there is a scale implicature


Speaking of Grice (actually, of Christ -- thanks to P. Stone's "Jesus Grice!")  
I saw a bumper sticker today that said:
"Jesus Loves You the Best".

Funny how that didn't surprise me.  Egotism makes life easier.

<love, like>

Note though the contradictionary implicatures inherent in Christianity:  "Jesus 
Loves You", so you'd better not jilt him or you'll end up in hell -- he'll 
still love you though, he just won't like you.  It seems even God treats those 
he likes better than those he loves.  I'm convinced that we like those who 
entertain us and make us feel good about ourselves.  We love those we're yoked 
to because if they fall, we fall with them.  Love is team work.  Like is fun.  
Faulkner once quoted a Mississippi girl as saying in answer to the difference 
between love and like: "If I likes them, I lets them.  If I loves them, I helps 
them."  But she obviously confuses love with lust.  So do we all sometimes, so 
do we all.  Anyway, I'm glad to see that the Greeks and Pythagoreans and all 
the other Loeblites haven't dislodged Jesus Grice from JL's implicaturing brain.

Mike Geary
Memphis (with all that that implies)

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx 
  To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:08 PM
  Subject: [lit-ideas] "I love Carrie. I don't always like her, but I love her" 


  Thus said, philosophically, S. J. Parker.

  Note that for Grice, there is a scale implicature

  <love, like>

  However, Parker is cautious: she says "always" -- which allows for a 
difficult, yet possible, logical interpretation.

  Cfr. however, odd variants:

  "I don't love Carrie. But I like her"

  "I never like Carrie. But I always love her"

  "I don't usually like Carrie, but I love her"

  etc.

  JL
  The Grice Circle

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