"Literally"
I wrote about this before in one of my big emails: http://www.slate.com/id/2129105/nav/tap1/
I just wish I wrote an article on it and sent it to www.slate.com
Sigh..
posted by krazykrankyken @ 11:59 p.m.
6 comments
6 Comments:
Yes, I remember getting that scathing e-mail from you. You should re-post it on your blog.
I literally jumped out of my seat and went to the bathroom after reading it.
Good idea, Vince!
Here's an excerpt from that email:
None of you told me that you planned to go to South or SE Asia for the holidays, so I assume you're all safe. Some of you told me that people you know were missing - I hope they're now accounted for and are in one
piece, and alive too, I guess. CNN has finally started reporting
non-tsunami news. Something that really bothered me about the reporting was the repeated misuse of the word "literally". Ever since an Aussie friend pointed out how so many people misuse the word "literally" two years ago, I've been cringing every time I hear it being misused. I don't
see how people can say that "the waves were literally ten feet high"
unless they measured them with a measuring tape. It's pretty hard to have "literally froze in [my] tracks" when you're in Phuket. Unless, of course, a comic villain shot you with a freeze-ray or a new Ice Age dawned very very suddenly. Don't see what's wrong? You can only use "literally" in a situation which is true in both a literal and a metaphorical sense. For example, if you're scared out of your wits, you would say "I nearly
shit my pants." You can only say "I literally shit my pants" if you really did pinch a loaf. You can't say "this literally tastes like shit" unless the cook managed to replicate fecal matter. A friend of mine told me he once heard someone talking about his comatose brother on a radio
show say "my brother is literally a vegetable." If you insist on using "literally", this is how you can test whether or not it's appropriate to do so: you should be able to replace "literally" with "actually", and whatever follows should be a metaphor or an irony. Something else that
bothers me is the term "perfect stranger". Is there such thing as an "imperfect stranger"? If I ever become a billionaire, I will establish the Grammar Police and will send offenders off for re-education. Hmm.. please don't accuse me of "linguistic
snobbery". I'm driven to this sort of behaviour because way too many people try to correct me when I am in fact correct. I enjoy out-snobbing the snobs, haha.
OMG, I can't believe you actually saved all your e-mails! But then again, since they're all so long, it's probably wise to save a copy since Windows has a tendency to crash while you've painstakingly typed a long message.
Have you thought about submitting any of your writing somewhere?
Yes, he's already a regular columnist for Angry Magazine.
Sigh.. I SHOULD publish stuff. Too damned lazy. Actually, I just think it's hard to stick my neck out for the first time. Can I handle the public scrutiny? Can I handle making mistakes? What if I'm not as good as I think I am?
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