literally drink in the experience
October 30th, 2005 by Fitz
Reader Jenny Glazer submitted the following gem from today’s New York Times:
B&B’s in Burgundy’s Vineyards (New York Times)
My wine adviser, Don (who has taken a professional wine course and doubles as my husband), had taken me there on a quest: to try to drink in, literally, the French winemaking experience.
It is not possible to literally drink in winemaking experience, but you can literally get drunk from your experiences during a winemaking tour.
I also like the apostrophe abuse in “B&B’s”.
Photo by re-ality.
November 1st, 2005 at 11:15 am
If “B&B’s” is apostraphe abuse, what is the proper way to spell that?
November 1st, 2005 at 11:42 am
Scott:
The plural should be “B&Bs”. The possesive would be “I walked into the B&B’s kitchen”.
The exception would be an abbreviation that contains periods: “Ph.D.’s”
Google Answers has a good summary.
November 1st, 2005 at 12:33 pm
I appreciate your website–I’m here through Slate’s link–because this is a fun usage to notice and mock through absurdity (e.g., by making statements such as “My mouth is literally on fire. Literally” when eating hot food).
There’s some dissonance in the figurative use of literally that I find interesting. The Slate article is in favor of such use in general.
Even if we reject a figurative use of literally in general, I fail to see how even a strict literalist can disapprove of this somewhat clumsy but clear attempt to link the “drinking in” of an experience to the literal act of drinking. But fair enough, I will concede to your own judgment of what fits with your website’s standards.
That Slate article is here: http://www.slate.com/id/2129105/
November 1st, 2005 at 1:54 pm
Robert: thanks for your comment.
I appreciate the intention of using “literally” in this way, I just think, as you say, it is clumsy. It’s like when someone tells a not particularly clever joke, then procedes to explain why it’s funny. “Get it? They were frayed knots!”
In this example, a rather nice piece of writing (”a quest: to try to drink in the French winemaking experience”) was turned into a cheap joke (”a quest: to try to drink in, literally, the French winemaking experience. Get it? Because we’re drinking wine!”)
November 2nd, 2005 at 8:09 pm
If you’re going to be so pedantic (while, incidentally, trying to suck any life out of the work of writers far more creative than you) you might want to work on your spelling. From your own response to this post:
“It’s like when someone tells a not particularly clever joke, then procedes to explain why it’s funny.”
Procedes?
November 2nd, 2005 at 10:20 pm
BobH: sorry, but with all my life-sucking activities I have little time left over to check for speelling errors.
November 2nd, 2005 at 11:40 pm
It’s official, we’ve hit the big time… we’ve got snarky commenters!
November 3rd, 2005 at 4:11 pm
Take it easy. Bob’s still trying to gain some traction over at “Typos, A Web Log.”
Comma splices, however, are an abomination. J’accuse!
November 6th, 2005 at 2:51 pm
Hey, isn’t that period supposed to be inside the quote mark, where you say:
I also like the apostrophe abuse in “B&B’s”.
???
November 6th, 2005 at 9:12 pm
@asx: punctuation and quotation marks vary depending on region and situation, as described on the following Wikipedia page: Quotation mark.
I have a Computer Science degree and a background in technical documentation so I lean toward the more logically-strict forms.
April 7th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
Fitz, I haven’t been back here since November; your response to my post really sets me straight. The example is much subtler without the clumsy use of “literally.”
I find it interesting to conjecture, perhaps contrary to your observation above, that this use of “literally” isn’t added to make sure the reader “gets it” in the way that a television show will go overboard in its exposition and/or explanation of major plot points (24 is horrible at this). Somehow the joke-y aspect of it is supposed to make the writer seem more clever than if the metaphor hadn’t been pointed out. The reflexive self-awareness actually sucks all the meaning out of the metaphor itself.
Anyway, thanks for the insight. “Pedantry with a purpose” isn’t a bad motto.