Pierre, or, the Ambiguities
Q: In the sentence "Dr. Bob is in Memphis, recovered from the beating he took when the police mistook him for a looter, and disarmed him, protecting his property from looters," the phrase "protecting his property from looters" is a dangling participle. It's ambiguous. You don't know whether Dr. Bob is protecting his property from looters or the police are protecting Dr. Bob's property from looters,
A: It's not ambiguous, it's ambivalent.
Dr. Bob had a gun. The
police disarmed him, and claimed they thought he was a looter. You will remember
there were reports of policemen looting.
Q: Who will watch the watchers?
A: Exactly. You accuse the enemy of doing what you are doing, or secretly want to do.
Q: You're writing Finnegan's Wake without having written Ulysses first.
A: I wrote Ulysses. It's back there in the stack somewhere.
I'm not writing Pierre without having written Moby-Dick. Moby-Dick
is back there. Somewhere.
I can't remember.
I just have a sense
of it.