Originally posted by simone50m
you have me now asking myself, why did I use the word that way. I could have merely said, "wow!" But it sounds too yokel.
I have found that students who finally decide to write their own stories,
or screenplays become very frustrated very quickly.
They find their own work lame,
and missing that "something."
They know what they _mean_ but it doesn't come across that way on the page.
When I point out that
in the age of sarcasm the only approved way to sound smart
is to say the opposite of what one means.
If someone does something dumb
people say "way to go genius."
But when it comes time to write something
and the language is constrained
almost everyone finds that they are incapable of "speaking forward."
This is particularly evident when one has to write enough dialog
for the edgy-break-out-sarcastic-star to rail against,
the average writter just wants to start with the rant.
They have no idea how to write a normal person who doesn't use sarcasm.
It is the emotional inflection that determines the meaning.
And as many of us have experienced on the net, and forums.
Sarcasm doesn't translate well into print.
Sarcasm, saying the opposite of what we mean,
and the inability to speak forward
is the single greatest disaster to befall human kind.
Even our technical abilities are drying up because of it.
David Grouchy