Monday 1 February 2016

Adverb (February)


In Old Arts philosopher Barry Taylor fumed about adverbs. What do they govern? They blur logic. Wittgenstein rarely used adverbs. And why? Is it Wittgenstein who is rare or his use of adverbs? Should they be banned from dialogue? Across South Lawn, in Medley, poet Vincent Buckley drank in the wobbly signifier. He was old school. Use adverbs sparingly, even in poems. They set up over-determined suggestiveness, turn insufferably Baroque. Their rhymes sound G&S. What would the Irish do? Even through summer, sleepy February, they agonised about adverbs. Now they have gone where, blessedly, such things no longer vex them.

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