The myth of the double negative?

Good morning.

Something on Facebook caught my attention yesterday. It was a joke about language, something along the lines of a lecturer saying in English a double negative become a positive, in some languages a double negative is still a negative but in no language does a double positive become a negative. And then the punch line is someone says ‘Yeah, right.’

Well that got me thinking. And yes, before anyone says anything, I do know its a joke, but that’s doesn’t stop me thinking these things. Imagine going to the cinema with me, its hell I’m told.

Its a fairly common statement that two negative words make a positive statement, but that makes no sense. You don’t write or say ‘No never’ and mean ‘Yes’, it emphasises the negative meaning. And I’m certain I’ve seen somewhere, in one of the books I have about Old English that the double negative is used to emphasise the negative point, in Old English.

So why, if logically this idea makes no sense, do people continue to perpetuate it?

I have two hypotheses as to why this is.
The first involves maths and science; in these subjects it is the case that a negative number added to a negative number gives a positive number. Thus the idea is drilled in to young minds that this is the case in ALL things.
But language and maths are the same things and they don’t have the same rules, so the rules of mathematics are irrelevant when it comes to language.

My second hypothesis involves people who think that there is only one ‘correct’ way to speak/write English. Perhaps, some years ago, when mass education arrived in England, some people got sick of others saying ‘aint nowt’ or similar phrases. These are perfectly correct dialect ways negate a sentence, but they aren’t standard English. And so began the myth of the double negative. Snobbery is responsible, not logic.

I have absolutely no proof that either of theses ideas are relevant, except personal experience – I had a strong
regional accent as a child and was repeatedly told I must lose my accent and speak out of dialect (to borrow a phrase) or I’d never get anywhere in
life; the reasoning behind this? The person who told me so had been told the same thing by his teachers seventy years ago so it must be true – and logic.

So is it true that a double negative in English makes a statement positive? No, not at all. As far I am aware. Let me know if I’m wrong, I’d love to see the sources. Seriously, I would. I’m a bit strange like that.

Bye,

Rose

Local libraries

I know, two posts in a day, how unexpected!

After I finished writing my last post I had a few jobs to do before I could go to the library. I had to take a book back. Well, I just made it, they were closing the blinds, a minute more and I’d have missed them entirely.

We’re fairly lucky, I suppose, that despite the threats to close local library’s we’ve managed to keep ours, if at reduced hours. Until late last year the library was open until half seven three nights a week and until 5.30pm the other two nights, plus 9 – 2 on a saturday. It is now open 9 – 5.30 everyday and 9 – 2 on a saturday. And the next nearest is only a half hour bus ride away. So, fairly lucky.

Many communities have not been so lucky. This is terrible. I know from a lifetimes acquaintance with the local library that it is not just a place to borrow books. Its a community centre and meeting place, local notice board for clubs and societies, access to the internet, a safe place for children to do their homework, an extension to the local schools and somewhere those who might other wise be isolated can feel welcomed and included. Staffed by members of the community (mostly, here at least) and provided for the community, they are essential, especially in isolated areas.

Not long ago the library got flooded and was shut for the best part of a month. The staff put on a skeleton service in the civil hall next door and tried to carry on, but everyone was pleased when it re-opened. The building is a dodgy sixties prefab, too small for the community, which has grown so much since then. There are only two computers, constantly in demand and booked. We could do with a new, bigger and more comfortable building to house what is essentially our community centre.

But we won’t get it.

Cuts in council budgets mean that when other libraries are closing the local county council won’t spend money improving an old one, and the town council can’t afford to.

And the provincial in me wants to say that the county council has no love for my little town, despite it making significant contributions to the council’s budget, so we won’t get anything even if we need it. Yes, that feeling is fairly common, although not necessarily justified.

So, value your library, its not just a building full of books.

Bye.

Rose

Review: Feed by Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire)

Zombie apocalypse’s: I do so love them.

Bloggers: News reporters, entertainers, educators. I have a soft spot for them as well.

What happens when you combine them?

Georgia and Shaun Mason, and their colleagues, that’s what.

The adopted children of the first people to lose a child to a zombie labrador, their entire lives have been dictated by, and dedicated to, the ratings.

Shaun likes to poke dead things with sticks, in the hope that its moan back, and then he can shoot it. Of the siblings he’s expected to die first, he lives with reckless abandon, goes out in to the field and returns to tell exciting tales. He’s an ‘Irwin’.

Georgette ‘Buffy’ Meissonier, their partner, friend and tech expert, likes to write poetry and romantic prose while giving the CIA a run for it money – if its electronic and can collect information she can improve it. Mostly she’s a ‘Fictional’, barely ever seen outside of the haven of their van and rarely in the field.

And finally, there’s Georgia ‘George’ Mason. All she wants is the Truth.

They run ‘After the End Times’, a blog site, that’s home to all three kinds of bloggers. They’re organised, determined and young. When they get the job of official press covering the presidential campaign of Senator Ryman, of Wisconsin, they also think they’re made. Travelling with the campaign, they give the public everything they need to know with as little bias as possible. They become among the most popular blog sites on the ‘net. And their candidate is gaining support.

And then things start to go very wrong. After a series of tragedies, sabotage and betrayal, events come to a head at the party Conference. Things will never be the same again for those who remain at ‘After the End Times’.

Well, that’s the story (or at least all I’m going to give you because I don’t want to give too much away), so what did I think?

The characterisation was well done, although Senator Ryman was a little too good, no politician is that decent. The world, a post-Zombie-apocalyse world, is carefully thought through and the society it presents is convincing. The story itself is riveting, keeping the readers interest throughout, exciting and intelligent.

Plus, there’s a sensible explanation for the living dead. Which is always a bonus.

In other words, I liked it. I’d even recommend it.

Now I’m off to read the second book in the series, Deadline.

Bye,

Rose

Review: The Long Earth, Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

Good evening,

It’s just occurred to me that I forgot to review this book. No excuse really, I have a day job and sometimes it gets in the way of writing, before I know it things have got away from me.

Anyway, on with the purpose of this post.

The Long Earth is an interesting book, intelligent and gripping. And there should clearly be a sequel, because I want to know what happens next.

The hero, and he is a hero in the traditional sense of a flawed yet almost superhuman main character, is Joshua Valiente, who was born on another Earth, just a step away. When the Long Earth’s are discovered he rescues scores of children and returns them home. The discovery of untold numbers of Earth’s has an interesting effect on home, or Datum, Earth economics and politics as people drift away.

Eventually Joshua takes on a mission to see how far a person can step, with the assistance of the re-incarnated soul of a Tibetan motorcycle mechanic currently embodied in a computer. Along the way they discover new hominid species and societies of humans, with the help of ‘Sally’ another ‘natural Stepper’ like Joshua.

But back on Datum Earth, among those unable to Step at all a rebellion is brewing and the results will be devastating for everyone.

And I’m not saying anything else because I don’t want to spoil it for you.

This is an interesting new direction for Terry Pratchett (I love his Discworld books) but the fun, insightful nature of his writing clearly shows in this book. I have never read any of Stephen Baxter’s work so I can’t compare The Long Earth to any of them. However, I think I might have to take a trip to the library to find something of his to read.

That’s it, not my most insightful review I know, but I had to write it quickly while I had a decent net connection,

Good bye

Rose

Reviews

I’ve officially given up attempting to read 50 Shades of Grey and its sequels. Sorry if you wanted a review, all can say is I got so bored of the bad writing and repetition I gave up. I’m glad I didn’t buy them, only borrowed them, because they really aren’t worth the money. You can get better smut free on the internet – go have a look around Live Journal or http://www.archiveofourown.org for instance.

However, I will be reviewing ‘The Long Earth’ by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. I had to wait a month to get it because out library got flooded in June (we had flash floods) and has only just re-opened. I started reading it this morning, If I hadn’t had other things to do I’d have finished it this evening. Safe to say so far i like it. So, review sometime in the next few days, dodgy internet connection and other commitments (a.k.a. work, why do I have to work? I’d much rather spend my time reading and writing than go to work) permitting.

Bye for now,

Rose

50 Shades of Gray: The review might not happen

I know I said I’d read and review EL James’s 50 Shades trilogy but I got 150 pages in to the first one and got sick of it. I am going to finish reading them, eventually. So far the writing is poor. It’s really not that shocking in its contents, so I really don’t know what the fuss is about. I’m more irritated by the poor writing than anything else.

Give me a few weeks and I might actually post a review.

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The Short Story that turned in to a Monster

A while back I wrote a short story called ‘Summer Wine’ and then it just sat in my notebook/laptop/brain for a few months. And now it has mutated in to a creature that could very well become a novella, or even a novel.

Now the only problem is, can I get my act together and actually work on it. I might even finish it.

Since that’s the case, I’d best be off and do some writing hadn’t I?

Review: The Wolf Gift, A Novel, by Anne Rice

After years of writing about vampires, witches and demons Anne Rice has turned her authorial eye on the werewolf myth. Set in the damp northern Californian city of San Francisco and its environs, over a period of a few months this 404 page novel attempts to explore the nature of good and evil, as the author does in ‘Interview with the Vampire’ and its subsequent series. As with the Vampire Chronicles Ms. Rice has built a world and history of a species that has its origins deep in human prehistory, in this case before the early cities of the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia.

It starts with a young ‘gentleman journalist’ falling in love with a house and its owner. Inheriting the house after a vicious attack that leaves him changed the journalist struggles to find his way. Luckily he meets a beautiful woman, falls in love, and finally finds guidance in the form of much older werewolves. It’s a coming of age novel with werewolves.

Okay, I’m really being succinct and I’ve missed out the big ‘adventure’ that provides all the action, but that’s because I found it a bit predictable. It was a fun read once I got into it. Unfortunately that’s the best I can say about it.

The characters are such stock archetypes I couldn’t really feel any sympathy for them. The hero is too good, always questioning himself, poetic, handsome, and wealthy; his mother is too much the protective superwoman with a brilliant career, his father the retired and retiring academic. His true love is so patient and perfect, his mentor so wise and good, the ‘bad guys’ are truly evil. In short, none of them felt real.

While the plot is good, it lacks any true excitement, one never feels the imperative to continue reading because one absolutely must, there is no feeling of doubt that the hero will overcome  and there will be a ‘happily ever after’. Basically it doesn’t go for the throat. It took me almost two weeks to read, and for a book of just over 400 words that’s a long time by my standards.

The prose is at times poetic, especially when describing the freedom the werewolf feels running through the forests and hunting, but at other times it is heavy, clumsy almost. And she should never, ever again attempt to write ‘intimate’ scenes, they sound awful.

It feels like Ms. Rice is re-writing her old books with a different species, and more Catholicism. Theological and philosophical questions of good and evil enter the narrative right from the first chapter. I don’t have a problem with people allowing their religious feeling to influence their writing; I just don’t like it shoved down my throat in fiction. The theology and philosophy is too heavily laid on; instead of being a subtle background melody informing the narrative, it is more like someone wanders in every few pages to beat you about the head with some religious tract.

I liked it by and large, but it never reaches the eloquence or genius of ‘The Vampire Lestat’ or ‘Queen of the Damned’.  There’s nothing original about the story but it was still a decent read, if nothing else is available. It’s a fairly good werewolf story, but Reuben Golding is forgettable where Lestat de Lioncourt is a genre-defining legend.

That’s all for now,

Rose

xXx

Book Review – future books I shall be reviewing

I have finally bowed to public pressure (i.e. my cousins wife and my dad’s wife, plus some friends and people at work) and agreed to read ‘Fifty shades of Grey’ and the books that follow it. So expect that sometime in the next month.

I will also be reviewing ‘The Wolf Gift’ by Anne Rice in the next two weeks (I need to read it before the 28th, when it has to go back to the library).

Once I manage to get the library to order me ‘The Long Earth’ by Terry Pratchet and Stephen Baxter I shall review that as well.

So expect a few book reviews in the next month or so.

 

Book Review: Deadlocked – True Blood 12 – Charlaine Harris

I have read every single one of this series, I’ve even read most of the short stories found in anthologies of vampire/supernatural romance. When I heard that thw twelfth in the series was to be published I immediateely put in an order with the local library for it.

I enjoyed the book, it resolved many of the plot lines of the past few books and allowed a certain amount of character development for the fae characters and for Sookie’s thoroughly human friends. We finally find out what she does with the cluvial dor. The end provides the reader with a clue as to the plot line for the thirteenth book, which is rumoured to be the final book in the series.

All this said, I do have some problems with it. The misdirection in the story line was fairly obvious and the plot threads were resolved rather abruptly in the last chapter.

3/5 – Good story, but Charlaine Harris has written better.