Folding or Unfolding? And weird nonspecifity
Over at the Comic Curmudgeon Josh is always ragging on the "weird nonspecifity" of Herb and Jamaal, in which they never use anything but vague, generic references. For instance, "Wow, check out the latest on the hotel socialite!" or "Last night my wife forced me to see that sappy chick flick." (As Josh remarked, "Ah, yes, “that sappy chick flick.” Thank God US law only allows one of those to be in theaters at any given time so that we don’t have to sully our lips with its name.")
Whether this is an attempt to remain timeless or just lawsuit-free, it is weird. But this sentence from The Eye of the Forest by P.B. Kerr has that sort of thing in it ...
He folded the computer open, attached it to a satellite phone, switched it on, logged on to a popular Web site featuring lots of videos, and then turned it toward John.A "popular Web site featuring lots of videos"? Oh, whatever can he be referring to?
Plus - "folded it open"? That's weird to me. There are only 50 or so hits for it on Google, so he didn't make it up, but ... why not "unfolded it"?
Labels: language
2 Comments:
-
At 2:34 PM, August 08, 2009
Barry Leiba had this to say...
-
-
At 9:49 PM, August 08, 2009
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
-
-
<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->Yeh, or "flipped it open".
I don't find the non-specificity to be weird. I actually think its charming. I especially like "that sappy chick flick." I expect that, for the most part, it's not the identity of the thing that's central to what he's on about.
Yeah, "flipped it open" is even more natural. Or just plain "opened it".
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]