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A comment on Smooth Talk. Parent comment

Re:Smooth Talk by mrob on Thursday November 02, 2017 @12:46PM (#15612023)
For example, consider the famous opening sentence of Pride and Prejudice: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

The joke only works in passive voice. If you attribute it to a specific person or group then it's no longer comical wishful thinking, it's just plain wrong. Sometimes vagueness is beneficial.

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Re:Smooth Talk by 1123581321 on Friday November 03, 2017 @02:47PM (#15621408)
Close — it’s because this kind of wanting is a passive, chronic want that may or may not be acted on with the right amount of forwardness, as the novel demonstrates.

You could rewrite the sentence as “a single man...wants a wife” and talk about exactly the same group (men with a fortune) so that’s not where the inaccuracy lies.

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Re:Smooth Talk by draw_down on Thursday November 02, 2017 @03:52PM (#15613655)
Pride and Prejudice, you say? Must have been written by some rube.
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