>>> 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, EricQ: How do you make daffodils a metaphor for happiness, Mr. Larkin?
Larkin: Be a genius. ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
