MSGID: 1:153/716.0 ec5de433   
   REPLY: 2:221/6.0 5ec26a42   
   CHRS: IBMPC 2   
   Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Dallas Hinton:   
      
    DH>  The writer is writing about events which have happened   
    DH>  (past). We have no idea what (if anything) has transpired   
    DH>  since. In any case, to suddenly shift from past to present   
    DH>  would be quite jarring to the reader.   
      
    AK>  BTW, Anton used such a time shift in his question. I was   
    AK>  also told many times not to do such a thing in one sentence   
    AK>  or even in one paragraph.   
      
      
             Depends on the circumstances.  If a joke begins with e.g. "Three   
   guys go into a bar" I expect it to continue in the same vein.  OTOH... as I   
   remarked to Anton on April 30th... the preamble doesn't count.  The present   
   tense may be used if we're reporting on the words of a particular writer,   
   regardless of when they were written, or if we're adding ideas of our own.    
   Similarly, if there is dialogue "s/he said" is independent of what's in the   
   quoted material.   
      
             I remember a song from the 1950's in which a woman tells her   
   children what her mother told her when she was a little girl... "What will be,   
   will be". Should you want to look up the lyrics, the name of this song is QUE   
   SERA, SERA.   
      
             Anton's question employs the present tense WRT what the author   
   did... an option which helps me as a reader sort it out from what other folks,   
   real or imagined, did.  IMHO Anton made the right choice because otherwise I   
   might have had to re-read the sentence to be sure who banished the devil in   
   question.  :-)   
      
      
      
    AK>  In one of his better tales, of which the original version   
    AK>  was rejected by the mYopic editors,   
      
      
             I concur that Anton was probably thinking of "myopic" in the sense   
   of lacking imagination or intellect.  As a near-sighted person I found it   
   easier & more enjoyable to read books than to endure the groans of my   
   classmates when it seemed I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn.  I also   
   noticed... even in grade two... that other people estimated my intelligence   
   more favourably when I could see the letters on the chalkboard.  History   
   repeated itself when my high school counsellors figured out that I knew words   
   most kids my age didn't know....  :-Q   
      
      
      
    AK>  he banished a DEMON (or THE DEVIL)   
      
      
             Careful!  I would accept "a demon", or even "a devil", on the   
   grounds that there may be countless numbers of either.  But when you say "the   
   devil" my Anglophone brain tends to think you're referring to Lucifer, AKA   
   Satan....  :-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)   
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