Saturday, April 16, 2011

A Funny Quote from The Merry Misogynist

I'm reading a mystery novel set in Laos that is titled The Merry Misogynist. I will write a review as soon as I'm done but for now I just wanted to share a really great quote from the book. This excerpt refers to the education system in the Communist Laos of 1978. Or does it?

"So as not to disturb classes, or, as teacher Oum would have it, wake up the pupils, he switched off his motor and scooted along the driveway to the building that housed the chemistry department. He'd been in graveyards less silent. Education, it appeared, had given way to copying large tracts of text from a blackboard. It saved the vocal cords of the teachers and the brain matter of the children."
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9 comments:

Pagan Topologist said...

OK, you need a 'tragicomic' button at the bottom of each entry!

Clarissa said...

Very true! :-)

Blogger, are you hearing this?

I forgot to mention in the post that the author's name is Colin Cotterill and he lives on the Gulf of Thailand.

Jonathan said...

Surely it should be "He'd been in graveyards more silent." A classic overnegation.

Pagan Topologist said...

Jonathan: No, less silent is clearly what is meant here. It means there was nore sound in the graveyards than in the classrooms.

Jonathan said...

Right. But to say that he needs to say the opposite of what he said.

At least I think so. Those kind of constructions always confuse me. I am incapable of even telling whether I am correct or not.

Pagan Topologist said...

Hmmm. I guess i don't see what is confusing about it. Less silent means more noisy. Just as less thin means thicker or less cold means hotter.

Jonathan said...

Now I see that you're right. I don't know what was confusing about it.

Clarissa said...

I do remember reading in Strunk and White's Elements of Style that this kind of verbal construction is considered poor writing style in English. Accorfing to them, you should avoid using 2 words where you can use 1. "Noisier" here would be better than "less silent."

Pagan Topologist said...

To me, 'less silent' seems more poetic than 'noiser'.