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Those of you who complain about the title... I can only wonder if you have any poetry in your souls. Yes, it helps to know that Grothendieck was a big-deal mat

Those of you who complain about the title... I can only wonder if you have any poetry in your souls. Yes, it helps to know that Grothendieck was a big-deal mathematician ("considered by many to be the greatest mathematician of the 20th century"). But what, did you think that "No Country For Old Men" was going to be about geriatrics without passports? When people quote Hartley's "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there", do you go looking for "Yesterday" in an atlas? Closer to home, after I read Yegge's Execution In The Kingdom Of Nouns I tried to book a vacation there, but the travel agent made fun of me.

nextlevelwizard 9y ago
Or maybe, just maybe, it could have been about some actual forgotten country where only name of a city or something survived? Obviously you can use whatever title you want and be as poetic as you like, but at least in my mind I was going to a very different place than "mathematician". As for your examples, they don't really fit, since we have way more context about them. If you are going to see a movie with a title "No country for old men", you can be pretty sure that the title wont be literal (unless it's an comedy movie, in which case it might be). As for the quote, most people get that "past" is past and not some place and certainly they are not going to start looking for "yesterday" like you suggest, that's just stupid of you to even suggest. Anyone who is aware that "yesterday" is part of "past" already knows what you are talking about. However most people do not know who or even what Grothendieck, to me it doesn't even seem like a name of a person, but that's just me. EDIT: You can downvote me all you want, but unless you can come up with coherent response, please think twice why you are downvoting.
Sunset 9y ago
Yes. Actually.
mattkrause 9y ago
Ouch! I suppose you're the guy who came up with title? For me, the issue was that I didn't know what a "Grothendieck" was and the title doesn't give you any clues either; in fact it explicitly denies that any exist. It also flouts the convention for fanciful non-fiction titles, which is something like "Clever-or-poetic-part: plain description." Something like "A country of which nothing is known but the name: Grothendieck and mathematical motivation" would be better, I think.
- Angostura 9y ago
  > Ouch! I suppose you're the guy who came up with title? Ouch! The only possible reason for defending it.
michaelmrose 9y ago
Perhaps people expect a title to be either helpful or artful. This one is both less than descriptive and uninteresting. People would probably be be less concerned that it wasn't descriptive if the title was artful or clever.

nextlevelwizard 9y ago

Or maybe, just maybe, it could have been about some actual forgotten country where only name of a city or something survived? Obviously you can use whatever title you want and be as poetic as you like, but at least in my mind I was going to a very different place than "mathematician". As for your examples, they don't really fit, since we have way more context about them. If you are going to see a movie with a title "No country for old men", you can be pretty sure that the title wont be literal (unless it's an comedy movie, in which case it might be). As for the quote, most people get that "past" is past and not some place and certainly they are not going to start looking for "yesterday" like you suggest, that's just stupid of you to even suggest. Anyone who is aware that "yesterday" is part of "past" already knows what you are talking about. However most people do not know who or even what Grothendieck, to me it doesn't even seem like a name of a person, but that's just me. EDIT: You can downvote me all you want, but unless you can come up with coherent response, please think twice why you are downvoting.

Sunset 9y ago

Yes. Actually.

mattkrause 9y ago

Ouch! I suppose you're the guy who came up with title? For me, the issue was that I didn't know what a "Grothendieck" was and the title doesn't give you any clues either; in fact it explicitly denies that any exist. It also flouts the convention for fanciful non-fiction titles, which is something like "Clever-or-poetic-part: plain description." Something like "A country of which nothing is known but the name: Grothendieck and mathematical motivation" would be better, I think.

Angostura 9y ago
> Ouch! I suppose you're the guy who came up with title? Ouch! The only possible reason for defending it.

michaelmrose 9y ago

Perhaps people expect a title to be either helpful or artful. This one is both less than descriptive and uninteresting. People would probably be be less concerned that it wasn't descriptive if the title was artful or clever.