File under: Say it ain't so

[Joel S. Berson]

Beyond Austen's own pen-processing, however, is the question of how
her "final" manuscripts compare with the published (first)
editions.  A more significant face (aspect), I think, than whether
her words flowed from her pen in perfection, as her brother said (as
reported by Federico Escobar), or not.  (And perhaps her brother was
referring to her final pen, and he only meant she needed no outside editor.)

Joel

At 10/23/2010 01:58 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>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"Austen's unpublished manuscripts unpick her reputation for perfection in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
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
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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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