8.08.2006

Get off my back, Monteray Jack!

Sorry to lower the intellectual bar, but if there is anybody who can get any mileage out of this comic, it's Invented Usage!

In general, qwantz is superb.

God: "THAT"S THE FIRST TIME ANYONE HAS EVER SAID THAT"
T-Rex: "Seriously? Does that mean I get into heaven FOR FREE?"
God: "HONESTLY - IT HELPS"

That should be our motto, in dialog(ue) form.

Now, there is much to discuss:
  • The viability of T-Rex's alternatives for "bitches."
  • How much prescriptivist linguistic crusades suck.
  • The brilliance of qwantz's use of minimalist form.
  • Whether or not it looks funny to add the "ue" to the end of dialog(ue), and whether expressing indecision about it by parenthesizing those awkward silent vowels is anything but awkward.
  • Why Cristi never capitalizes anything except for emphasis (I'm curious)

2 comments:

Cristi said...

hahaha,

but let me be a postmodernist for a second and point out that the 'unique' sentence is always a recombination of previously used speech particles. otherwise it oculdn't have meaning!

i guess the viability of alternatives depends on the whims of the speech communities they're introduced to? if t-rex is a cool kid, he might have a shot.

minimal web comics=often brilliant. this one = pretty darn brilliant.

i often have the same ue dillema... i guess i only include it when i'm trying to sound educated...

which brings me to the last point... i guess i don't capitalize on this blog (or 'pull an e.e. cummings' as my dad calls it!) because a) it lets me type faster, b) i think, as far as typed-on-the-internet speech styles go, it marks an informal one, which is good because c) i don't want to project too much authority, and d) if people who look at the blog and think 'this person doesn't know how to capitalize!' are turned off and don't read any farther... that might be ok. e) it's an arbitrary difference between me and other blog authors or between this blog and others.

Cristi said...

case in point:

dinosaur comic 8/23/03

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