6 ms·
For context, the Scarlet Letter is pretty annoying. Halfway through each of these sentences I feel myself losing patience A throng of bearded men, in sad-color
by codeulike 4y ago
For context, the Scarlet Letter is pretty annoying. Halfway through each of these sentences I feel myself losing patience
A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments, and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.
The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison. In accordance with this rule, it may safely be assumed that the forefathers of Boston had built the first prison-house somewhere in the vicinity of Cornhill, almost as seasonably as they marked out the first burial-ground, on Isaac Johnson's lot, and round about his grave, which subsequently became the nucleus of all the congregated sepulchres in the old churchyard of King's Chapel. Certain it is, that, some fifteen or twenty years after the settlement of the town, the wooden jail was already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front. The rust on the ponderous iron-work of its oaken door looked more antique than anything else in the New World. Like all that pertains to crime, it seemed never to have known a youthful era. Before this ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel-track of the street, was a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pigweed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison. But, on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.
- kemayo 4y agoDefinitely a pain if you're trying to teach it in a sentence-diagramming kind of way. That said, I kind of wonder why you'd be bothering to do that unless the kids are literally not able to understand what's being said and you need to work through it from first principles. (Which I guess is possible? That all reads as a bit of a ramble but perfectly understandable, particularly if you read it out loud.) For my part, I've never once in my academic career had to explicitly identify sentence parts.
- bitwize 4y ago> Definitely a pain if you're trying to teach it in a sentence-diagramming kind of way. I can definitely see the first sentence, alone, serving as an extra credit question on a high schooler's English test: Diagram this sentence! But that's a high schooler from my era (first half of the 90s). Much less seems to be expected of today's high schoolers.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Koshkin 4y agoThe attention deficit in action. (Not to blame you personally, this is what the modern communication style does to us in its pervasiveness, and the delicious "long form" characteristic of the "olden times" is no longer easily digestible by anyone with the prolonged exposure to texting and such; even when it comes to email, people often have enough patience to only read the first sentence.)
- codeulike 4y agoSorry can you explain that again a bit more briefly?
- klyrs 4y agotake longer; don't relent
- akiselev 4y agoThe 21st century in a nutshell: too long; didn't read.
- claytongulick 4y agoCare to elucidate?
- ryandrake 4y agoModern technology makes people's brains impatient.
- kridsdale1 4y agoI’m sorry I lost interest by word three.
- watwut 4y agoTo be fair, more readable 19 century texts definitely exists. Not every writer was writing in such convoluted way.
- twelfthnight 4y agoOh. That's funny I find this kind of beautiful. I think the contrast between the man made structures and the wild roses is poetic and highlights the cruelty of capital punishment. EDIT: I wonder if maybe the long florid sentences are the entertainment of that time, kind of like how folks 100% video games today, spending a lot more time than necessary for fun. Definitely it is... Verbose though.
- codeulike 4y agoThere is some lovely stuff in there but the way the commas are used keeps tripping up my head. I suppose I would adjust to it after a few pages.
- chris_wot 4y agoYou need to literally slow down. I genuinely think it is far harder to find inspiration in sound-bites, and that is what we are increasingly used to. What you have quoted, incidentally, is complex because it combines a lot of ideas that follow on from one another. The second paragraph, in particular, starts with the forefathers of Boston allocating land for a prison and ends with disappointment and sadness that prisoners are not even afforded the beauty of nature. In between it observes that the prisons decays rapidly and is a “gloomy” place with poorly maintained grounds, and observes the general air of hopelessness of the prison. It’s kind of beautiful, really. It gives a lot of context. Edit: FWIW, I have ADHD. This wasn’t an easy read, but it was worth it.
- bitwize 4y agoTo be fair, that kind of verbosity is an obvious belt onion: it was the style at the time. That said, after struggling through it a couple of times, taking time to reread portions, it really painted a vivid picture, casting a Gothic pall over the scene in ways a more to-the-point passage might not.
- mock-possum 4y agoAnnoying? Really? Man, I think this is some beautiful prose - have you tried reading it out loud to yourself? > Certain it is, that, some fifteen or twenty years after the settlement of the town, the wooden jail was already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front. The rust on the ponderous iron-work of its oaken door looked more antique than anything else in the New World. Like all that pertains to crime, it seemed never to have known a youthful era. Like tell me that doesn’t paint a picture - in a fine narrative voice!
- SamBam 4y agoI loved it too. Then again, I read a lot. I imagine this kind of thing is like exercise. This morning I followed along with a 20 minute "beginner yoga" video, and hated it because it felt painful and incomprehensible to my stiff, aging body.
- goalieca 4y agoMy brain also shuts off after a few commas. This style just does not speak to me.
- codeulike 4y agoReading it out loud does improve it, you're right
- olddustytrail 4y agoWell, sure, of course, if, you like, William, Shatner as, a, narrator,,,
- jwestbury 4y agoIt does, but periodic sentences can be hard to parse, because you've got to keep a lot of context in your head at once. I can't read French, but my English translations of Proust have single sentences which span a full page and more at times, and whilst I love Proust, I must certainly admit that those sentences require multiple readings to fully understand!
- politician 4y ago> Like all that pertains to crime, it seemed never to have known a youthful era. Poignant. Thanks for sharing.
- 98codes 4y agoI actually had a _lot_ more trouble with the first sentence oddly enough; the proliferation of commas where (in modern syntax at least) there should be no commas kept placing unnecessary and unwanted breaks in the language flow. It's entirely possible that by the time I was into the second paragraph that I had simply adjusted to the writing style and was able to proceed without any issue; I haven't the time to properly compare the two.
- bcbrown 4y agoThat's beautiful. It makes me want to re-read the Scarlet Letter.