Alicia,
what a wonderful idea for a "mastery" thread. Thank you.
This topic has preoccupied me since I first started posting, when I discovered to my horror that any expression which did not conform precisely with spoken custom was likely to be judged not only a perversion, but a most unsavoury one.
And still, any variation in standard prose syntax or diction on TDE will invariably draws negative comment from most responders.
Of course such variations are a danger, especially for novices. But what we seem to have at present is an almost global feeling on the board that all "perversions" are wicked, and must not be allowed. And so poetical puritanism reigns, where nothing but the cleanest phrases and most proper grammar are permitted. As you say, the catch-phrase of opprobrium is: "would we say it like that in everyday speech?"
There is nothing at all wrong with the "plain style", as you say, and I use it mostly myself; but when it becomes the only "correct" mode, a great deal of poetic potential is lost.
It drives me loopy; but I ask you, given this situation, why should not this old man be mad?
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Mark Allinson
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