We has grammar to who knows what we talk for.

I was wasting my time on facebook just now, and my brain almost melted when I tried to read this status update:

Guy: What made us as 3 years old know our passions…now we think ourselves blind with reason.

If he was quoting someone, I can’t find it, and neither can google.

He shortly commented on his obvious mistake:

Guy: I really like looking back at things like this…re-reading and knowing how my scattered brain took an s from one word and put on another but didn’t go back to change 2 words earlier. There is a little bit of me that finds it funny someone would have pride in themselves to pick at grammar like there is value in it. I like the idea if there was no deleted/remove. I hate edit.


Being an easily irritated person with very little filter, I added:


Me: ”I hate edit.” That is a sentence.

I mean, come on! You can’t explain away previous poor sentence structure with a STRING of grammatical errors posing as a paragraph! I am praying for this guy’s sake that this is a big, funny joke. However, I wouldn’t be super shocked if he was fucking serious.

I can’t even fully ARGUE with the sentence “There is a little bit of me that finds it funny someone would have pride in themselves to pick at grammar like there is value in it.” I can’t because I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT. Is he saying there is no value in grammar? Yes, one could imply this conclusion from that sentence. The context suggests that there are negative tones laid around “funny” and “pride” by the words “pick at” (something which sounds bothersome), and “like” (in this case, possibly meaning “as if”). In addition, you could always say that the gestalt of the sentence informs the missing pieces: the word "that" and a few commas. Therefore I can glean that the writer of the sentence in question does not think that grammar is very valuable.

However, because I had to use my own knowledge of grammar and linguistics to figure out what the fuck he was saying, his point becomes moot (and mute: he is literally unable to communicate).

The analyst in me wants to say that he is only rejecting grammar because he has always had a hard time understanding it. Writing is a great way for some people to express themselves, but some prefer speech, music, etc. He forms a rule, identity, or cause (DOWN WITH GRAMMAR! IT’S FOR NERDS!) in reaction to his inability to face his own shortcomings. However, again, I can’t really write that, because: (1) I don’t know this guy; and (2) I’m still not sure how he feels about grammar. That sentence is difficult to read.

Also: just to be clear, I am not really a grammar nerd. I did read Eats, Shoots & Leaves (a really obnoxious, but informative and funny book by: Lynne Truss), but that hardly qualifies me as a fucking English teacher. I just like clear writing. And this dude does seem like he has something to say, so it bums me out that I can't really understand him.