3 ms·
Which tense do you want to live in ? — I want to live in the imperative of the future passive participle— in the “what ought to be.” I feel like bre
by justifier 10y ago
Which tense do you want to live in ?
— I want to live in the imperative of the future passive participle— in
the “what ought to be.”
I feel like breathing that way. That’s what I like. There exists such a
thing as mounted, bandit-band, equestrian honor. That’s why I like the
fine Latin “gerundive”—that verb on horseback.
Yes, the Latin genius, when it was young and greedy, created that form
of imperative verbal traction as the prototype of our whole culture, and it
was not the only thing that “ought to be” but the thing that “ought to be
praised”—laudaturaest—the thing we like. . . .
..The Prose Of Osip Mandelstam
- dang 10y agoWow, you made my day. I love Mandelstam. I also know of a (small but consistent) linguistic practice in which people deliberately speak in gerunds as a form of verbal indirection, and it works surprisingly well.
- logicallee 10y ago>linguistic practice in which people deliberately speak in gerunds as a form of verbal indirection ? could you give an example? (I can only think of sentences like "stealing is wrong" - but it doesn't seem like this is what you mean, because where's the indirection?)
- dang 10y agoIn certain forms of bodywork the practitioner will not say things like "breathe deeply" or "pay attention to x", but rather "breathing deeply" and "paying attention to x". I've not studied the origin of this (it may come from trance induction), but it does feel easier to absorb such instructions when they're not issued head-on.
- logicallee 10y agoThanks! interesting