Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Occupational hazards; or, Pedant, c'est moi.

From the New York Times Sunday Book Review, a letter from one Robert Epstein, no doubt a medievalist of great merit:

"Edward Hirsch's review of Simon Armitage's new translation of 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' (Dec. 16) welcomes with such sincere enthusiasm a book that will no doubt bring new appreciation of this great poem that only a pedant would quibble with details. I am that pedant."

3 comments:

  1. hilarious. and too familiar. with very much less at stake on either end, this is me w/ the beowulf movie.

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  2. What a fabulous line. Note to self: must use this or, at least, the basic structure in future conversations. Note II to self: a great line for a teacher. As in, "many teachers would no doubt feel that this writing is quite good, needing no revision, only an ass would point out the larger rhetorical issues. I am that ass."

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  3. LOL, counterintuitive. And nice echo of Dogberry in _Much Ado about Nothing_ (4.2)!

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