[lit-ideas] blankets has been discovered
- From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:21:54 -0500
>>> Besides, electric blankets, as *have* been
discovered since the film was made, are bad for one's
health.
>>mostly I judge sentences by how they strike my
sensitive ears and Eric's sentence doesn't sound right.
Surely 'as *have* been discovered' should be 'as [it]
*has* been discovered, the 'it' perhaps being optional.
I don't really like the sound of this fix either ...
Exactly the quandary! I first chose "has" because
"have" didn't sound right, but "blankets ... has been
discovered" kept ringing wrong. "What would Robert do?"
I exclaimed (though it was really more of a question).
The problem is "discovered." As in "as has been
discovered." That really amounts to "a discovery has
been" which is exactly what the seeming was. Except.
Except that it was [a series of] discoveries that had
been. Science. Replication of results. These results
"have" discovered ... bad blankets.
But who has a finger on that trigger? Elided
scientists, that's who! All those invisible and
self-effacing researchers, perhaps in silent rebellion
against A.J. Liebling's views of Proust, who had
discovered that e-blankets were bad.
But they hadn't discovered blankets. So the problem is
really the discovered problem. They did it. Those
researchers. Them. &%&$!!!
Fire good. Electric blankets bad.
Wrote by,
Eric
Q: How do you make daffodils a metaphor for happiness,
Mr. Larkin?
Larkin: Be a genius.
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