Subject:
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Re: Who James Isn't (was:Re: New Castle Sucks (so far...)
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Wed, 29 Dec 1999 09:38:39 GMT
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Viewed:
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1591 times
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Larry Pieniazek wrote:
> In lugnet.off-topic.fun, John Neal writes:
> > James Brown wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > You don't know that I'm mortal, you only have precedent to work with.
> >
> > I wonder....would an immortal end a sentence with a preposition?
>
> Quite. That, quoting Churchill, is something "up with which I will not put"...
The "rule" about prepositions ending sentences is an archaic Victorianism, an
effort to "Latinize" English. Since English is a Germanic language, and German has
prepositions at the end of sentences all of the time (separable prefixes and all
that), as does Dutch, there's no reason why we can't do it too. The rule about "no
split infinitives" is from the same stupid era of haughty stylistics, not to
mention just dumb, because once you "split" an infinitive, it's not an infinitive
anymore--"to" becomes a different part of speech.
> > -John
> >
> > > I
> > > certainly intend to live forever. :)
>
> Saw Bicentennial Man today, it made me cry. A lot. Here's a question for you:
>
> Would you give up practical immortality in order to be officially recognised as
> "human", given that you already were, for all intents and purposes?
I'm really looking forward to seeing the movie. The first time I read the story
(It was first an Asimov short story in the 1960 or 1970s, by the way) it was very
profound. I only hope they haven't cluttered the basic premise too heavily with
cheap sentimentality and gimmicky laughs...have they?
best,
Lindsay
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