I'd like to take a moment to say...
Jan. 15th, 2006 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fuzzybluemonkeys
...that I am against the use of noun phrases such as "the older of the two", "the taller [but younger] of the two", "the smellier of the two", "the blonde", "the brunette" [especially the last two because as far as I can tell they're both brunettes], "the 26 year-old", "the 22 year-old", "the 22 year, 5 month, 3 day, 6 hour, 8 minute, and 17 second-old"
Now it's bad enough when they're used as descriptions "Sam, the younger of the two brothers, was also the taller one" because no! Really? Sam's the younger one? And he's taller? No freakin' way! What really irks me is when it's used as a pronominal phrase "The taller of the two rolled his eyes in disgust at my apalling writing skills" And I'm not talking about when there's a third person who doesn't know their names and so would be justified in using descriptive terms to distinguish them, this is the author saying "The 26-year old thought about strangling the taller of the two, but then decided it would be better to join forces with the 22-year old to hunt down people who are incapable of using fucking pronouns and proper names!"
Thank you, and goodnight.
Now it's bad enough when they're used as descriptions "Sam, the younger of the two brothers, was also the taller one" because no! Really? Sam's the younger one? And he's taller? No freakin' way! What really irks me is when it's used as a pronominal phrase "The taller of the two rolled his eyes in disgust at my apalling writing skills" And I'm not talking about when there's a third person who doesn't know their names and so would be justified in using descriptive terms to distinguish them, this is the author saying "The 26-year old thought about strangling the taller of the two, but then decided it would be better to join forces with the 22-year old to hunt down people who are incapable of using fucking pronouns and proper names!"
Thank you, and goodnight.
