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Sunday, December 28, 2008

The boys are outside having a snowball fight. Bread is rising. Needles are falling off the Christmas tree. For today's entry, I seem to be able to write only short sentences. But since yesterday I've written 5 pages of an essay on Dickens. And many of the sentences are long.

I will quote only one sentence from my draft, but it is an important sentence . . . not necessarily in this essay per se but certainly as regards my personal grammatical belligerence:

"Do not get me started on the ignorant adverb-hating tendencies proselytized by contemporary self-help writing manuals."
Perhaps someday I will write an autobiography of grammar.

Just yesterday I got a phone call from an author whose book I edited last year, in which she thanked me profusely for bringing gerund clarity into her life. Just imagine. Gerund clarity for everyone. It could be a movement.
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2 comments:

  1. Mr. HillDecember 28, 2008 at 11:02 PM

    oh good, because right now I'm not believing just how wonderful a book is David Copperfield, and maybe your essay will be done by the time I finish it on Wednesday. It's just the funniest, and I'm ashamed that I hadn't figured this all out a long time ago. That Dora is such a goose.
    I keep remembering the line where he refers to Dora's playing of "the dear old French songs about the impossibility of ever on any account leaving off dancing."

    So, do hurry.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dawn PotterDecember 29, 2008 at 6:10 AM

    I just found out that DC was Tolstoy's favorite book too. Isn't that exciting?

    ReplyDelete

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