Find the problem with this passage and win a prize.

"She vants to buy zee vorld a Coke."	"Well," said Max, "she can't afford it. And the world would demand Diet Pepsi, anyhow."

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Posted by: PandorasSox Original: 6/8/2006 6:45 PM Views: 344 Comments: 23 eProps: 14 Read Comments Post a Comment Back to Your Xanga Site

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2 eProps from: LadyLibellule ravemachine HypocrisyofCake jickityjickityjarz annErz_cheesE_lAyer deeply_freezer ENGLISH_TOFFEE_CO

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Find the problem with this passage and win a prize.

'Are there any farmers among them [Europeans]?' Mahjoub asked me.
'Yes, there are some farmers among them. They've got everything — workers and doctors and farmers and teachers, just like us.' I preferred not to say the rest that had come to my mind: that just like us they are born and die, and in the journey from the cradle to the grave they dream dreams some of which come true and some of which are frustrated; that they fear the unknown, search for love and seek contentment in wife and child...
-Season of Migration to the North, Tayeb Salih

Hint: It's not the arguable need for a comma between "dreams" and "some of which."

Posted 6/8/2006 6:45 PM - 344 Views - 14 eProps - 23 comments

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23 Comments

The last sentence struck me as somewhat incestuous. But, other than that, I'm not sure...

Posted 6/8/2006 8:27 PM by LadyLibellule - reply

i watched a few parts of dumb and dumber tonight... that is a fantastic movie. i didn't know it was really as good as it is.

Athena
__Look well at this, and speak no towering word
__Yourself against the gods, nor walk too grandly
__Because your Organ is weightier than another's,
__Or your great iron Seed-Houses more splendidly prominent. One short day
__Inclines the balance of all human things
__To sink or rise again. Know that the gods
__Love men of steady sense and hate the proud.
(Exeunt.)

~Sophocles' Ajax

Posted 6/10/2006 2:16 AM by ravemachine - reply

I believe that's a selection from an old Germanic lied, one of which Richard Wagner adapted for his epic Der Ring des Nibelungen. In it, Brunnhilde and Siegfried, tired of being in the case surrounded by the wall of fire, go and give Odin what-for, and they burn Valhalla to a crisp.

And there are farmers. In the background. They're cut out of most retellings of the story.

Anyway. The problem is plainly that there is no fear in the unknown, because I can see the future, and contentment in wife and child is ludicrous. Children are noisy beasts and won't leave you along until you're collecting social security.

Or something.

Posted 6/10/2006 3:06 AM by HypocrisyofCake - reply

passive voice. "are born" wait, are we not hounding rhetorical errors?

Posted 6/11/2006 1:28 PM by jickityjickityjarz - reply

What really struck me is the part where all people have all these wonderful things in common, including seeking contentment in wife and child -- either everyone's a lesbian and gay marriage is legal, or women (and children) aren't people. Super. You wouldn't think that a second X chromosome would exclude you from humanity, but apparently...

Posted 6/12/2006 3:16 PM by PandorasSox - reply

jarzopalooza:

A] passive does not equal fail

B] the other option there would be something like

"[...] just like us their mothers give birth to them and they die [...]"

C] see D

D] i think this passage is from Battletoads (1991) anyway, so don't expect those poor guys at Rare to have good grammar

E] did you know that sailfish can swim as fast at seventy miles per hour?

Posted 6/14/2006 1:14 AM by ravemachine - reply

Oooh, I thought you were looking for a grammatical error...But yes, now I see it.

Posted 6/15/2006 3:08 PM by annErz_cheesE_lAyer - reply

what question?

this summer i'm going to school, trying to find a job, and wasting a looooooot of time. it's cool, because now i have complete control over what i eat-- for the first time. i wanted ribs the other day? so i bought ribs. olive oil and red wine vinaigrette tastes disgusting, though. like crabs.

Posted 6/18/2006 9:38 PM by ravemachine - reply

damn it, woman. was he right?

Posted 6/24/2006 5:46 PM by jickityjickityjarz - reply

delete that shit, christina. and i just noticed the title of this entry. the passage feels awkward at many points, but i can't think of anything i would call 'wrong'.

Posted 7/1/2006 11:42 PM by ravemachine - reply

oh you didn't say wrong, you said 'a problem'. then that's the problem, for me

Posted 7/1/2006 11:42 PM by ravemachine - reply

it's taking you so fucking long i won a prize on kotaku. now i don't even need your filthy 'prize-job' or whatever you would have called it.

clickety-clank, clickety-clank

Posted 7/20/2006 2:10 AM by ravemachine - reply

It's a "me" thing, but I'd put commas after "workers," doctors," and "farmers," and take away the "and"s.

Posted 8/4/2006 10:42 PM by ENGLISH_TOFFEE_CO - reply

it's not a huge difference, but the writer may have chosen the ands on purpose.

litotes, mr mcniff

Posted 8/5/2006 4:55 PM by ravemachine - reply

when i said 'delete that shit', i was talking about some spam post that some fucker put up. IN CASE YOU ARE NOT PRIVY

Posted 8/5/2006 4:56 PM by ravemachine - reply

christina has the LA face with the oakland booty

Posted 9/8/2006 4:41 AM by ravemachine - reply

Ah, Xanga. Those were the days. Not just Xanga. No. Blogging. That was the time of our lives. We will never be younger than we are now. Get out there and leave no one behind. Ask not what your country can perish from the earth. We cannot dedicate-- we cannot consecrate-- we cannot hallow-- the moon by the end of this decade. Give me liberty or give me my cocker spaniel Checkers.

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this luckiest man on the face of the earth and ask Congress declare that a state of war exists between the United States Susan B. Anthony.

Thank you.

Posted 9/11/2006 11:32 PM by HypocrisyofCake - reply

thanks for making me fucking weep

Posted 9/14/2006 1:05 AM by ravemachine - reply

MODS STICKY THIS

LEGENDARY THREAD

Posted 9/22/2006 10:55 PM by ravemachine - reply

big-booty hoes

Posted 10/15/2006 9:34 PM by ravemachine - reply

-E(O)3-

*bows deeply*

Posted 10/23/2006 9:32 PM by ravemachine - reply

you should change your name to 'bread of gold, ass ox'

Posted 11/13/2006 10:25 PM by ravemachine - reply

Nick, you're a lunatic.