Terror and Gibbon

[zdover]

During "The War On Terror"1 as prosecuted or waged by the Bush Regime, Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Bruce Cheney (and possibly, though I believe likely to a lesser extent since even at the height of his understanding he could see the matter only as one might see it through a glass darkly, George Walker Bush) floated the idea that keeping "America"1

Comments

[vexed_vitality]

Edward Gibbon has been my homeboy ever since I read an abridged version (600 pages or so) of the Decline and Fall last year. I am pleased to see him invoked here. I wish I were better at emulating his style, but I'll settle for mere admiration and envy. He and David Hume divide the realm of 18th century British historical writing between them. There is no third.

[vexed_vitality]

By the way, there's a good essay on Gibbon in Clive James's book Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories From History and the Arts, which book I cannot recommend highly enough. It's in paperback now, too.

[grosely_clerx]

This reads like a preamble to a larger argument or thesis which you have yet to post.

However, I do take issue with footnote 3: I always thought it was punctuated such because it is not a list kept by your friends (friends' list), but a list of your friends. Like my Potions List, my Badgers List, my Weapons Catalogue.

A more clear and defensible name would be "Friend List," since we don't usually pluralize the things we're listing in the title of that list. As a child, I had a "Penny Jar," not a "Pennies Jar," and I used the funds therein to buy stuff for my "Toy Chest," not my "Toys Chest." "Friend List" sounds awkward, but I think that's just because I'm more used to saying "Friends List" after being on Livejournal for eight years.

[grosely_clerx]

Man, while we're talking about words? In the above paragraph, talk about your superfluous "howevers." Yeesh.

[zdover]

I liked your recent livejournal post about your day.

[grosely_clerx]

Thanks - it was fun! The day, and the writing.

In my post before that, I managed to convince Will Cockrell to order Oscar Wao. I'm curious to see his reaction to it.

[silent_penis]

I have found something you and I agree on sir. I also do not like the rule that says that you put the punctuation within the quotation if I'm not quoting the punctuation as well.

[zassenhaus]

i do not believe you need to place 'war on terror' or 'america' in quotes. given that, i do not understand why 'america' is to be placed in quotes in its first appearance and not in subsequent uses. if you used quotes as an excuse to reference derrida, then:

1. if the reference is ironic, it is mildly amusing;
2. if the reference is earnest, it, to me, undermines the rest of your post, considering derrida's propensity to obscurantism, illogic, and le grande merde;
3. considering 1. and 2., you are either an ironist or one who likes to reference derrida (i do not know if there is a term for this). in either case, you appear to be participating in what foucault would describe, while being sodomized, as le hipsterisme par excellence.

i enjoyed the history in his post.

also, "euphrates" is misspelled.

[zdover]

My motivation for referring to Derrida and erasure was that I didn't want to forget about erasure.

[zdover]

Also, Dre.

[robertdot]

Regarding footnote 3, I always assumed "Friends List" was a shorter way of writing "List of Friends," or "My List of Friends" to get the full possessive phrase. So, there would be no need for the apostrophe.

Regarding footnote 4, I agree and refused to do it for a long time. For example, if someone said with no inflection, "I hate pizza," and I was shocked by it enough to tell my friend later, I might exclaim that the person said it, even though the person didn't. It seems like writing what I would say later as "Then he said, 'I don't like pizza!'" has different implications than if written "Then he said, 'I don't like pizza'!" as the exclamation mark is tied to my sentence like it should be rather than the quote. I think the same applies for the full stop. I also write HTML for a living, and the semantics and placement of HTML elements in and around text is rather important. So, I may be looking at what I feel are inadequacies where other people just don't care.