fiction = 'literary prose or poetry'; remit = 'assigned or expected task'

[Jonathan Lighter]

Also in the winners' circle was Nicholas Gage's blatantly nonfictional
autobiography, _Eleni_.

JL

On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 8:43 AM, 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: fiction = 'literary prose or poetry'; remit = 'assigned
> or
>               expected task'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  > The reader is challenged to figure out for himself from context what the
> writer *really* intends to say
>
> My students used to do this all the time. Maybe I should go back and change
> some grades....
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 10:12 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: fiction = 'literary prose or poetry'; remit = 'assigned
> > or
> >               expected task'
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 8:15 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> > <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > what Stone or his Times editor really wished to say was that
> > > the panel was to choose "prose and poetry."
> > >
> > > Not *fiction.*
> >
> > Jon, clarity is no longer a part of "good" writing. The reader is
> > challenged to figure out for himself from context what the writer
> > *really* intends to say, exactly as you've so successfully done.
> >
> > It's the opposite of the dumbing-down done for the benefit of the polloi.
> >
> > Given the continuing rise of SAT scores among the children of the
> > privileged, it's a natural evolutionary progression. As our generation
> > dies off, any problems with this sea-change will simply vanish of
> > themselves.
> >
> > --
> > -Wilson
> > -----
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> > to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > -Mark Twain
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org