Saturday, November 6, 2010

IMPENETRABILITY


"When I make a word do a lot of work like that," said Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra."

From Reader #2

I do believe I told Anthony so. Indeed I'm sure I did at the Mad Tea Party. Any silly goose knows it would never do to write so many American col--lo--qui--al--isms. It's too ridiculous! Have you heard how Anthony's flippant regional chickens have now come home to roost?

Well, it's very provoking. A week ago, it seems, a real scholar in Europe inferred that Anthony Cekada had called him a Freemason.* Then Anthony, who isn't in the least clever at explaining words, had to tell him that "Augé and company" was an American idiom. (You know, the kind ne'er-do-well scribblers use when they try too hard to be witty rather than thoughtful). Oh, Anthony is such an unsatisfactory drudge, I declare!

Next, in a very disagreeable fit of pique, Anthony whimpered that the European scholar ignored his "evidence." I daresay in our country you generally must write seriously if you wish to be read seriously. I'm afraid Work of Human Hands is not a serious book, and its author is certainly no scholar. Why, compared to Matias Augé, Anthony appears "but as a fly by an eagle."

Well, at least Anthony begged pardon because he couldn't write Italian. Papa says he should apologize for all his blunders in Latin, too. Anthony, as Papa often repeats, is like someone who's "'been at a great feast of languages, and stol'n the scraps.'" Pity he hadn't the presence of mind to carry off some orts of the Queen's English.


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