The three: Stephen King's On Writing, Francis Collins's The Language of God, and Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. The McCarthy book is an Itunes download, but still.
I'd liken it to a phone conversation. Having a convo with one person is fairly easy (relatively speaking); having a phone conversation while there is another person in the room trying to talk to you is annoying but doable. Having a phone conversation with two people in the room trying to talk to you is utterly discombobulating and not advisable in the slightest. I do believe it will be my last foray into this particular territory.
Yes, I live a life of passion and intrigue.
Your obvious attempt to "show off" by bragging about how many books you read has backfired on you, revealing the truth of the matter - you are retarded.
ReplyDeleteI'm having one of those argue-if-I-could moments.
ReplyDeleteI'll argue for you:
ReplyDelete1. Lemuel acknowledges an underlying attention deficit issue in the first two words of his post. It doesn't matter whether this condition is a diagnosis or a euphemism of sorts. Either way, the reference to ADD serves to disarm the reader. Lemuel does not want to insinuate that he is superior to the average "Anonymous" by virtue of the fact that he is interested in reading three books without necessarily finishing any singular one before starting the others. That is the entire purpose of the ADD reference, and if it isn't, there is still no other context clue that could lead a reader to conclude that Lemuel is "showing off." "Anonymous" seems to equate a "show off" with someone who reads more than one book at a time. That says more about "Anonymous" than it does about Lemuel.
2. Another thing that says more about "Anonymous" than Lemuel: "Anonymous" takes it for granted that a person who mentions reading three books at once is retarded. But then again, perhaps "Anonymous" refers only to people who "show off" about reading three books at once. Either way, it is unclear how "showing off" about reading three books at once necessarily leads to the conclusion that Lemuel is retarded.
3. Even if Lemuel is retarded, why does "Anonymous" take such relish in drawing attention to the limited cognitive ability of a mentally retarded person?
4. Perhaps "Anonymous" means that anyone who attempts to read three books at once, but who also finds the process a somewhat unsatisfactory method of reading books, is necessarily retarded. If that is what "Anonymous" means, then doesn't his/her message belie his/her own attempt to "show off"?
I may have left some kernel of logic out of my analysis, but in defense of myself, I have ADD, have been reading three books at once, and now suspect that I am retarded.