Number 29
Scientist Rupert Sheldrake wrote the following about the use of the passive voice in science writing:
"The test tube was carefully smelt*." I was astonished to read this sentence in my 11-year-old son's science notebook. At primary school his science reports had been lively and vivid. But when he moved to secondary school they became stilted and passive. This was no accident. His teachers told him to write this way.
When I was at school, my science teachers made me write in the passive voice, but I had no idea it was still going on. Ever since I was a graduate student at Cambridge, I have thought the active voice ~ "I did" ~ far more appropriate in scientific writing than the passive ~ "it was done". Experiments do not mysteriously unfold in front of impersonal observers. People do science, and to portray it as a human activity is not to diminish it but to show it as it is.** Sheldrake Online
When I studied Spanish in school, I learned that it's possible to say "the cup broke itself" ("la taza se rompio") instead of "I broke the cup." In Spanish, one does not have to take tiresome responsibility for things past mending. The milk spilt itself. But too often, the passive voice is used to avoid a firm declaration of opinion, or even clear statement of fact. For example,
"It is thought that . . ."
"It was decided to . . ."
(*Note the British past tense of smell, "smelt." **Note also the placement of the period inside and outside quotation marks, depending on the logic of the sentence.)
A local weatherman says, "Please make it a nice day." Much better than "Have a nice day," don't you think? It was never clear how one could go about "having" a nice day; it seemed like a matter of luck.
Reminds me of this line from a recent TV program on obese children: "Children are more at risk where one or more parents have obesity." Like they caught it by not washing their hands or something.
Which in turn reminds me of Lorelei Lee, in the Anita Loos book Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, who when on trial for murder batted her eyes at the judge and explained, "Suddenly he became shot." She got off. Just goes to show that the passive voice has its uses, sort of like passive aggression.
Over the weekend I went with a friend to a little town that has a sign at its city limits saying "Anytown, A Rural Community," which somehow struck both of us as the sign of a town booster trying too hard (I made up the "Anytown" part). But with that kind of fanfare, maybe it won't be rural much longer. Tractors did form a good percentage of the parade vehicles in its tiny annual Jubilee parade, but this pretty little town is promoting itself for development. In one of its restaurants, photos of a big new warehouse in a nearby but even smaller town hang on the wall with the caption, "We should have gotten this building!" They want jobs, and presumably just being rural isn't enough to sustain the economy. In a few years, I expect all that ruralness will have turned to housing developments and streets with names like Hunter's Glen, Deer Hollow, Quail Run ~ the signs and symbols of a "Rural scene, a rural scene/Sweet especial rural scene" (Gerard Manley Hopkins, "Binsey Poplars"), which will exist only in name and word. Maybe then they can hang pictures of farms and woods and say, "We should have kept this."
A news feature about an old miracle fiber, Koroseal, basically a vinyl made from limestone, coke, and salt, reported that a "socialite" who was corralled to endorse Koroseal clothing supposedly said, "Science is now at our service with the fabrics the gypsies forecast to our grandmothers when we were the women of tomorrow." This quote has that jet-air-puffed flavor of modernity so popular in mid-twentieth century advertising. All women of today were, of course, women of tomorrow yesterday. It has a certain ring, a certain dizzying aura of time-travel into futurity. But I can't see even metaphorical gypsies prophesying about miracle synthetics to women of tomorrow. (Koroseal was a bust for bathing suits and other clothing, but went on to success as insulation, flooring, etc.)
"Lived" in "short-lived" or "long-lived" is usually pronounced as the past-tense verb ("he lived") but I think it ought to rhyme with "jived". My reasoning (and there are others who agree) is this: Someone or something that is short-lived has a short life; I think the phrase came from the word "life" and took the same path as wife-wive-wives ~ "I have come to wive it wealthily in Padua" (The Taming of the Shrew). In other words, it comes from the noun, not the verb, like calling a person short-sighted, not short-seen.
Viacom's former The National Network formerly The Nashville Network and still not Spike TV starts Thursday. The new macho fare will include:
"Look at 'CSI' and 'Star Trek' and 'Blind Date.' These are all things guys like," says Albie Hecht, president of [not Spike] TV.
This is what the fight was about. If Spike Lee really thinks they're co-opting his persona, I'll be seeing him in a whole new light.
Diva Suede, subject of a Parvum Opus rave, reports that she had a legal dispute about her name, which was also the name of a foreign musical group performing in the U.S., but she wasn't arguing that anything suede-like (including your Hush Puppies) is infringing on or stealing her own unique suedeishness.
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