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Secret Squirrel's avatar

Why is gender appropriation not proscribed?

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Joel E. Lorentzen's avatar

Mr. Gage, your satire approaches the level of Joseph Heller’s artistry! If you are just now reading Catch 22, which I have probably read 20 times, I expect a successful apprenticeship, surpassing the master...

Regarding Orwell, your audience may appreciate my earlier novel Proles - a Novel about 2084.

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Christopher Gage's avatar

You're too kind, sir.

I think we read Catch-22 in school... but, I was more interested in mischief than anything else. Lieutenant 'Scheisskopf' made me laugh. I'm enjoying it.

Ah. I think I might enjoy that too. Have you read Anthony Burgess' novella '1985'?

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Joel E. Lorentzen's avatar

Have not, but I will now!

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Christopher Gage's avatar

It's a series of essays, followed by a short 20-30k novella. Burgess cracks open an entirely new world. Great stuff.

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Joel E. Lorentzen's avatar

Is it available on line in English? I find only the Spanish version on Amazon

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Joel E. Lorentzen's avatar

Thanks. Amazon US doesn’t offer kindle version, but UK does. Won’t let me buy it, tho. Needs some work!

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Carl Nelson's avatar

I believe the powers that be are bedeviling the language until they can say authoritatively that "a word means whatever I say it means," and we'll grudgingly agree.

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Christopher Gage's avatar

Yes. Doubleplusbad.

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Casey Jones's avatar

An item in the cornucopia of delights proffered the Sourista is the word play and yet... "undulating morass" in a riff on word abuse? Rolls off the tongue nicely and elicits a quick if rather illicit giggle but a morass undulating? I would have thought morasses a rather more sedentary lot. And: Women can be dicks, but that neither implies nor denies the existence of a penis -- which would not be possible for a woman.

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Christopher Gage's avatar

I like 'Sourista'. Cheers!

A morass as in 'a complicated or confused situation.' 'Undulate' as in 'moving in waves.'

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Casey Jones's avatar

Really, sir! "An area of low-lying, soggy ground." But to keep the peace, I'll concede a secondary or tertiary meaning. Cheers backatcha!

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Christopher Gage's avatar

Hahaha. Thank you.

I didn't know this, but the figurative definition came about in the mid-19th century: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/morass

Peace assured, sir!

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