When I found out that I was going to get the opportunity to review Far From the Madding Gerund, I was a bit intimidated. I had a mental image of two men who would pick my review apart, pointing out every misplaced modifier. And God forbid I would ever end a sentence with a preposition. So I dug out my ancient copy of Strunk and White's Elements of Style and set it next to my computer, ready to refer to as I wrote.
Then I began reading the book. On page 5, Strunk and White are called "perennially clueless." And it gets better from there. I gleefully tossed my ancient copy back into the hole from which I had pulled it, and settled in for an enjoyable read. I also promptly subscribed the the RSS feed for The Language Log — which only makes sense. The book is a collection of posts from the blog. Not just random posts, though, but a "best of" compilation that fans of The Language Log will enjoy. It will quickly get newcomers hooked on the blog.
But the target audience is not language pedants — those people who never split their infinitives, or dangle their participles. Those people who know that a preposition is not the sort of thing with which to end a sentence. In fact, Liberman and Pullum will raise the ire of liguistic prescriptivists. They split infinitives. They break rules. And they make people think and laugh at the same time, which is important.
Just a few examples of targets that get skewered in the book (and on the blog):
- Those who mock George W. Bush for his "Bushisms": there is, in fact, a standing invitation for author Jacob Weisenberg to join Liberman for dinner (Liberman's treat) at the restaurant of Weisenberg's choice, provided that the conversation can be taped and studied for "howlers" that would later be published in a book of "Weisbergisms."
- Best-selling author Dan Brown: Brown is taken to task for his repetitive plotlines ("[t]he simple fact is that if you are ever mentioned on page 1 of a Dan Brown novel you will be mentioned with an anarthrous occupational nominal premodifier ... and you will have died a painful and horrible death by page 2, along with several curiously ill-chosen cliches and mangled idioms" is just one example of their criticism of Brown's writing). It's refreshing to read someone who doesn't like Dan Brown because he's not a good writer. Popularity does not mean quality, and Liberman and Pullum are quick to point out the syntactic flaws in Brown's works. And yes, they've read them all.
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