If you do not immediately suppress the person who takes it upon himself to lay down the law almost every day in your columns on the subject of literary composition, I will give up the Chronicle. The man is a pedant, an ignoramus, an idiot and a self-advertising duffer… Your famous specialist . . is now beginning to rebuke ”second-rate” newspapers for using such phrases as “to suddenly go” and “to boldly say.” I ask you, Sir, to put this man out . . . without interfering with his perfect freedom of choice between “to suddenly go,” “to go suddenly” and suddenly to go. . . .” Set him adrift and try an intelligent Newfoundland dog in his place.
Now, I suggest you go kindly away, my literary critics.
(kidding)
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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This Sunday, our preacher caught himself using a split infinitive and apologized for it. Now that’s classy.
all i can say… “to boldly go…”
“To boldly go”! I think I just vomited a little in my mouth!
Who you gonna believe: that lying atheist Shaw or the nice preacher man? If you start by accepting atheist grammar, next thing you know you’ll backslide all the way to using atheist measurements (the metric system, courtesy of the French Revolution). Then, you’ll reject biblical marriage, which is between a man and one or more women but not two sisters (Leviticus 18:18).
Note to all: a split infinitive may seem innocent, but it’s a gateway sin. Repent or perish!