File under: Say it ain't so

[Jonathan Lighter]

Note too Prof. Sutherland's use of "unpick" to mean "undo" (generally). (OED
allows for a "fig." sense, but the below has no metaphorical context):


"Austen's unpublished manuscripts unpick her reputation for perfection in
various ways: we see blots, crossings out, messiness -- we see creation as
it happens, and in Austen's case, we discover a powerful counter-grammatical
way of writing."

Fascinating is the gratuitously defensive phrase, "a powerful
counter-grammatical way of writing." All writers (with the famously alleged
exception of Shakespeare) blot, cross out, etc., all the time. Irrespective
of any later editorial improvement, that is not a weakness in Jane Austen's
writing. It just shows she had no word-processor.

BTW, a second look an hour later reveals that Yahoo has nonsexistically
replaced the invidious "male editor" headline.

JL

On Sat, Oct 23, 2010 at 1:16 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: File under: Say it ain't so
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> What a wimpy headline. Try this:
>
>
>
> http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20101023/ten-jane-austen-novels-polished-by-mal=
> e-a56114e.html
>
>
> "Jane Austen novels 'polished by male editor'"
>
> JL
>
> On Sat, Oct 23, 2010 at 12:57 PM, Paul Frank <paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
> >wr=
> ote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Paul Frank <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU>
> > Subject:      File under: Say it ain't so
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
> >
> > "Jane Austen's style might not be hers, academic claims"
> >
> > <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11610489>
> >
> > Paul Frank
> > Translator
> > Chinese, German, French, Italian > English
> > Espace de l'Europe 16
> > Neuch=E2tel, Switzerland
> > paulfrank at bfs.admin.ch
> > paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
> >
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> --=20
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--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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