Sinister: B & S travelogue--tautologies and oxymorons

[Youn J. Noh]

On Tue, 15 Aug 2000 Nick.Dastoor at 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.




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