Re: Sinister: B & S travelogue--tautologies and oxymorons
Schatz - I'd say your friend isn't half as clever as you think and the oxymoron is probably 'Summer in winter, winter in springtime' after all. I'd also guess that the tautology s/he had in mind is one you missed. When it comes to tautologies, there's a fine line between stupid and clever, but I reckon We Rule the School's "Written for anyone to read, and to see" is firmly in the 'stupid' camp . I think someone else said as much a while ago. I mean of course they can bloody see it if they can read it. Unless it was *carved* into the bus stop with some kind of really sharp implement and could be read with one's fingers, but I don't think that's very likely at all. IncidentalIy, I wouldn't say 'You could either be successful or be us' is strictly speaking a tautology, because taken alone, 'us' isn't necessarily unsuccessful. The line is indirectly imparting the information that they are not successful. Even if the line were "you could either be successful or be unsuccessful", one could argue that it wasn't tautological, because it would be offering two alternative life paths, rather than simply making a meaningless prediction of the 'Well, Exeter will either win or lose this match' variety.
we had a big search for a boy called richard's poo
Bet he gets bullied. Oh, I see - he does.
So then a boy called Hatham who is gay decided to not be gay any more and stick his tongue in my mouth instead.
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On Tue, 15 Aug 2000 Nick.Dastoor@guardian.co.uk wrote:
I'd say your friend isn't half as clever as you think and the oxymoron is probably 'Summer in winter, winter in springtime' after all.
Here's another oxymoron that might be more interesting: "I am a lazy gett, she is as pure as the cold driven snow" but it depends on an interpretation of 'driven' as driven through, or maybe driven away, as an outcast? This is iffy and probably has to do with my original mishearing of 'cold' as 'coal', i.e. perfect snow that has been blackened by human traffic. A point in my favor: snow is such a cliched image for purity, he must have meant to use it in a new way. Otherwise, what does 'driven' have to do with purity, unless it's purity of the repressed or frigid sort, not innocence.
IncidentalIy, I wouldn't say 'You could either be successful or be us' is strictly speaking a tautology, because taken alone, 'us' isn't necessarily unsuccessful. The line is indirectly imparting the information that they are not successful. Even if the line were "you could either be successful or be unsuccessful", one could argue that it wasn't tautological, because it would be offering two alternative life paths, rather than simply making a meaningless prediction of the 'Well, Exeter will either win or lose this match' variety.
But aren't tautologies supposed to be literally tautological? Then it's contingent on either interpretation of 'or'. But this isn't taking into account the meaning of 'could'. It's a tautology with a wide scope reading for the modal, which is justified because 'either' follows it, unless you don't believe it's possible for anyone to be successful. And say that we mean something is possible if it is at all possible. Anyway, how about this? She didn't recognize my face She didn't even looking at me So for some reason, I get the feeling he meant to insinuate that she was lying. +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "peculiarly deranged fanbase" "frighteningly named +-+ +-+ Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
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Nick.Dastoor＠guardian.co.uk -
Youn J. Noh