Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

«

»

non sequitur

Just reading the 8 & 15 August issue of the New Yorker which includes Louis Menaud making the following assertion about Edmund Wilson:

When it came to most physical activities, he was inept. He did not, for instance, know how to drive a car.

Excuse me?

Many people do not drive cars. Some of them are highly ept at a whole range of physical activities. They have simply chosen not to learn how to operate the greatest killing machine of this century and the last. Any fool, ept or not, can drive a car. Takes a wise person to choose not to.

Posted by Justine at 18:56, 11 August 2005 under Ranting, Reading, State of the World, Words & Language | 10 Comments »

Comments

  1. John Scalzi Says:

    Nah. If you can’t drive a car, you’re not a complete human being. Says so right there in my car manual. And my car manual wouldn’t lie to me!

    August 11th, 2005 at 8:28 pm

  2. gwenda Says:

    Wow, that _is_ a non sequitur. My mind trying to figure out what it could possibly have been meant to mean (besides what it obviously does) pictures Wilson awkwardly attempting to “drive” a herd of driverless cars, ala cattle.

    August 11th, 2005 at 8:31 pm

  3. Jenny D Says:

    i caught that one too. i am sorry to say that i don’t have a driver’s license!

    August 11th, 2005 at 8:54 pm

  4. steve Says:

    But in Wilson’s case, not knowing how to drive never stopped him trying. It was a nightmare; I think you can still find some of the dents he left in buildings today…

    Nah, I’m kidding. The image of Edmund Wilson tooling around on sidewalks with folks leaping for their lives was too much to resist.

    August 11th, 2005 at 9:02 pm

  5. Lauren McLaughlin Says:

    Cars blow.

    August 12th, 2005 at 10:58 am

  6. ron Says:

    another reason that I love you justien is that you used “ept” in that sentence. Every time I do or say that, people give me odd looks or challenge me, saying things like “that’s not a word!”… they just don’t get it. it almost excuses you eschewing upper case :)

    August 12th, 2005 at 8:35 pm

  7. 7. Justine Says:

    Ron: Thanks, darls. You really must stop hanging out with such drones!

    Jenny D: why are you “sorry” to say that you don’t have a driver’s license? Own it with pride! I don’t have one. Lauren doesn’t. Scott doesn’t. All the best people don’t! Like Lauren said: cars blow.

    August 12th, 2005 at 10:05 pm

  8. Jenny D Says:

    all right, i henceforth own it with pride!

    another cool usage akin to ept is “couth”–you almost always only see uncouth, but i like these back-coinages.

    August 13th, 2005 at 12:56 am

  9. steve Says:

    Also, ‘plussed.’

    August 13th, 2005 at 7:22 am

  10. 10. Justine Says:

    Those are both good. I always like to claim that I am full of gorm.

    August 13th, 2005 at 9:35 am

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

    Categories

    Archives

    RSS Feed

    Subscribe

<-- -->