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I mean, it's a novel about the politics of foreign powers trying to extract a valuable resource which is crucial for transportation from a desert region that is
by Lazare 7y ago
I mean, it's a novel about the politics of foreign powers trying to extract a valuable resource which is crucial for transportation from a desert region that is explicitly described as looking like a cross between Mexico and the Arabian Peninsula (even to the point of Arakis having date palms and saguaro cactus), so uh...
...what was a turn off? That the author felt the need to point out the glaringly obvious?
(Obviously the book explored many other themes about power, religion, culture, environmentalism, etc., plus it was a pretty good story. But you can't really pretend the Middle East and oil weren't also major themes in the book.)
- Rebelgecko 7y agoI can't speak for what bugged the above poster, but that sentence is worded in an incredibly awkward way.
- ulisesrmzroche 7y agoNot really. English your first language? I’d take out the last comma and that’s it
- Lazare 7y agoEh... The phrase "symbolic about" is weird. "X is symbolic" is fine, and "X symbolises Y" is fine, but "X is symbolic about Y" is unusual at best. I'd probably go for something like "The novel can be read as an allegory for the dependence of the West on oil, and for the power struggles which arise to control this valuable resource." I think that expresses the point in a clearer way, and is more idiomatic. But the author's version is clear enough, even if sounds to me like something a native speaker probably wouldn't come up with on their own.
- Rebelgecko 7y agoYup, I'm a monoglot. Saying something is "symbolic about" is awkward wording IMO. As is saying "dependence on the oil", instead of just "dependence on oil".