Peter Kirby wrote:If it's part of a larger story, the boy has two brothers, and his sister is missing after being seen near the sinkhole, and this boy is talking to the parents after all the children separated from them, and if the story is otherwise constructed in a way that it is more or less some kind of a mirror image of John's... well, then it almost actually just makes sense, as a story... doesn't it? (Feel free to disagree, but come on... it's just not that weird.)TedM wrote:I refer you back to my story about the boy discovering the back yard sinkhole, goes inside and wakes up his parents and says "there's a sinkhole and we don't know what happened". While I"m sure there is some out there, I've never read a piece of fiction that reads like that. This account in John is much the same in the way it is presented.
Much more? Actually, no... I don't get it, in general, and I'd tend to classify this as more along the pedantry spectrum, than anything very illuminating (sorry!). The only morsel I was thrown above -- "Your version has the boy simply talking to the parents. John's version (and mine) has the boy revealing something extra-ordinary to the parents" -- really just has me more bewildered than ever, even as it seems to communicate your belief that my version is not involving the extraordinary, your version is involving the extraordinary, and that this is relevant to "how people talk" in some way, I guess, because you "agree that it [my example] could have made sense," but it's too far off base and not a good representation of what happens in the Gospel of John (apparently, because of the difference of "extraordinary" vs non-"extraordinary," which I never considered a possible factor in this outcome).TedM wrote:TedM wrote:
But that wouldn't be a mirror image of John. The mirror image of John would be if the boy had two brothers and a sister and they all had some toys in the backyard, the wakes up early and goes out by himself to play with his toys and to his horror discovers that the yard has collapsed and all of his toys and his siblings toys are gone and then he goes in and wakes up his parents and says "there's a big hole in the backyard. All of the toys are gone and we don't know where they are".Wow, we are on different wavelengths for sure. You gave a story that you said was a mirror image of John. I thought your point was that with the background you provided, a comment by the boy of "we don't know what happened" would have made sense in the story. I would agree that it could have made sense, but I don't see how it applies here because I don't agree that it was a mirror image of John, or nearly one. Your version has the boy simply talking to the parents. John's version (and mine) has the boy revealing something extra-ordinary to the parents, and if I were to I apply your hypothesis then the boy would immediately voice his parent's response right back to them "we don't know what happened" before the parents have even displayed a reaction in the story. That just doesn't sound like like any fiction I would find very compelling because it is illogical with regard to how people talk, so I don't think a fiction writer would do that typically.Peter Kirby wrote:Honestly, I don't even know what your point is here. Like, completely no idea.
No clue at all what you think is so important and distinctive about your edition, or what is wrong (according to you) about what I said.
Don't know why you felt motivated to change the story from what I suggested. Did you think it made some sense, and so this other one was constructed because you think it makes less sense... or is this just some kind of pedantry, trying to show (somehow, I don't know how) that I've misunderstood the story of GJohn and failed in the technical details of making a similar yarn?
So, I provided my expanded version of my original story which I think WOULD be much closer to being a mirror image of John. In that version, "we don't know...." still doesn't make sense. Would you agree that my version is much more analagous to John's story than yours?
In the words of Alice in Wonderland, "Curiouser and curiouser!"
It's probably time just to agree to disagree.