Writing about He Knew He Was Right
I am making my first venture into Trollope having been inspired by A Round-Heeled Woman.
And it reminded me of how intransigent people can be in their relationships with other people – and why.
A brief plot synopsis can be seen on Wikipedia – but what it doesn’t cover is the clever way in which Trollope depicts, through interior monologue, how people come to reason themselves into being so steadfast in their beliefs.
In essence, the plot is a big row about nothing with a lack of reconciliation because each party rationalises its own position and builds themselves a narrative of how they are the injured party and therefore cannot make the first move…
But what should he do? There was, first of all considerations, the duty which he owed to his wife, and the love which he bore her. That she was ignorant and innocent he was sure; but then she was so contumacious that he hardly knew how to take a step in the direction of guarding her from the effects of her ignorance, and maintaining for her the advantages of her innocence. He was her master, and she must know that he was her master. But how was he to proceed when she refused to obey the plainest and most necessary command which he laid upon her? Let a man be ever so much his wife’s master, he cannot maintain his masterdom by any power which the law places in his hands. He had asked his wife for a promise of obedience, and she would not give it to him! What was he to do next? He could, no doubt, at least he thought so, keep the man from her presence. He could order the servant not to admit the man, and the servant would, doubtless, obey him. But to what a condition would he then have been brought! Would not the world then be over for him over for him as the husband of a wife whom he could not love unless he respected her? Better that there should be no such world, than call in the aid of a servant to guard the conduct of his wife!
In fact, so far, the book is entirely about miscommunication. A cautionary tale for all of us involved in the industry!
Filed under: Book, English, Internal Communications, PR, Review, Work
Writing about
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/ram/today4_obscurewords_20070727.ram
And about
- A Treasury of Unusual Words
Hooray for Christopher Foyle – a good Essex man from near Maldon – and, of course, something to do with a few big bookshops.
I was reminded of this just now (I confess I had forgotten it from this morning!) because I’m in the process of editing something written by an academic colleague.
The thing that reminded me was the question posed by Evan Davis: should we make a point of using obscure words to prolong their existance or should we concentrate on making ourselves understood using say the 800 most commonly-used words?
We certainly claim to have have a good many more words in English than in other languages – but see the Oxford Dictionaries on this….
Kakistocracy
A system of government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens.
Bovine Scatology
For those of you who love a good euphemism, Bovine Scatology is a term
coined by General Norman Schwarzkopf, first heard by the viewing public
at a press briefing on status of the air and ground campaigns during the
Persain Gulf War. The general referred to speculations by various
military pundits, employed by CNN and other news gathering/reporting
organizations, as “bovine scatology”.
Filed under: Books, English, Essex, Language, Radio 4
September 20, 2005 • 2:51 pm
Writing about an entry you don’t have permission to view
Hmmm – after a glorious 20/20 on the English last week, a paltry 14/20 on the Maths this week.
I
didn’t understand most of the questions and started to panic. My
stomach literally started churning just like it used to at school.
I secretly hope that it can be explained by numeric dyslexia – but I fear that might be a weak excuse.
Anecdote:
When I first got to uni I pointed out posters to my friends.
They looked like this:
I couldn’t see what was wrong with them. I’ve always put this down to being slapdash and not paying attention to detail though.
Anecdote Ends
I got C and 4 grades at GCSE and IB subsid respectively – but I put a lot of effort in.
Equally
before we started househunting I couldn’t even say numbers with more
than 4 digits in – honestly tens of thousands just eluded me.
Hmmm – I think I’ll make this post University only!
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Dsylexia, English, Maths, Test
