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Wish It Were All So Pleasant
By petermolin
February 13, 2009 at 5:36 pm |
Hey Pete,
Great storyboard!
Best,
Chris
February 18, 2009 at 4:02 am |
Tony M. would call it occultatio. I’d call it praeteritio. (A sign of our differing interests, perhaps.) But yes, in either case: a powerful acknowledgment of all that is unsaid, by acknowledging that it’s unsaid. The act of saying via explicit contradiction or passing-over.
February 22, 2009 at 10:32 pm |
Mike: Here’s what I was worried about: Should the title of the post be “Wish It Were All So Pleasant” or “Wish it Was All So Pleasant”? My authoritative grammar source Wikipedia tells me that either is correct, though the latter is colloquial. Knowing that many of my readers have advanced degrees in English, I erred on the side of formality. Hope I got it right… but Lord knows there are probably enough other cringe-worthy typos, crudities, and tin-eared passages scattered throughout the blog. I beg foregiveness, gentle reader. -Pete
February 28, 2009 at 7:00 pm |
I’d suggest that the “were,” as the subjunctive form of “was,” strongly emphasizes the counterfactual nature of the circumstance you’re portraying, which I presume was your intent: things ain’t always this happy here, you’re saying through the combination of picture and title, and I hear you also saying that such circumstance merits mentioning. (I’m sorry: yes, I know I’m rehearsing the obvious.) A form of litotes, perhaps?