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joeviee

#242829 Wed, 05 Jul 06 09:53 AM

Hi,

This is an excerpt from an article on Merriam Webster Online. Could anyone explain to me what the author trying to say in the article?

"We've come to accept that time may or may not be on the side of the Rolling Stones, that The Who's generation may not all die before they get old, and that the remaining Beatles may well find themselves struggling with love at 64. But can we make our peace with the notion that the bikini—that symbol of summer—is itself entering its seventh decade?"

Are those highlighted words idiomatic expression?

Thanks.

joeviee

Joined on Sat, Apr 30 2005

Full Member (171)

Articles, Expressions

milky

#242830 Wed, 05 Jul 06 10:00 AM

No, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who are all names of bands. The Rolling Stones had a song called "Time is on My Side", The Who sang "My Generation" and one of the lines was "Hope I die before I get old" and The Beatles sang the song "When I'm 64". The writer of the above extract is saying that all the members of the above bands are either old or dead, so time affects all of us. But, the modern Bikini appeared in 1946 and is still popular today, so it has not really been affected by time.

(edited by mod to remove quote of original post. Takes up too much space in the forum milky!)

milky

Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004

Senior Member (3,149)

Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".

joeviee

#243102 Thu, 06 Jul 06 03:20 AM

Oh I see. I always come across articles or jokes which quoted things that popular people said, did or sang which I don't understand most of the time. Is that a form of culture in the writing style of most westerners? If yes, won't you afraid that your readers might not know what exactly you are trying to say? I'm just a bit curious Smile [:)]

joeviee

Articles, Jokes, Writing styles

Grammar Geek

#243105 Thu, 06 Jul 06 03:26 AM

Well, if I quoted a novel that I wasn't pretty sure was very widely read, I would be taking a big chance that most people would miss what I was trying to say. But the Stones, the Who, and the Beatles, as well as the songs being referred to, are just SO well known that the author (clearly a Westerner) knew that other Western readers would know immediately what he meant. Paul McCartney, who sang about whether his lover would still need him, love him, etc. when he was 64 just turned 64. It was a pretty big deal. (He was probably about 20 when he first sang it.) I myself am a little young to be a Who fan, but I can still sing along to all the songs referenced in the article.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,195)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Articles

Likeguslee

#243134 Thu, 06 Jul 06 06:15 AM

I think this is part of the beauty and attraction of learning a foreign language, for you not only learn to communicate in a new language but also to understand and discover a new culture. I am pretty sure that Chinese literature and newspapers do have lots of historical and cultural references or anecdotes that non-Chinese readers well versed in the language would need to know in order to really get a better understanding of what they read.

Likeguslee

Joined on Mon, Jun 5 2006

USA

Full Member (330)

Literature

CalifJim

#243154 Thu, 06 Jul 06 07:42 AM

Is that a form of culture in the writing style of most westerners?

In the sense that no writer writes in a cultural vacuum, yes, it is part of the writing style -- although style is probably the wrong word. Writers all over the world write for readers of their native language. There are numerous elements in Kenyan writing that are only immediately understandable to a Kenyan; there are numerous elements in Indonesian writing that are only immediately understandable to an Indonesian; and so on. This is not an exclusively Western phenomenon; it is a universal of human nature.

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (16,496)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Writing styles

milky

#243164 Thu, 06 Jul 06 08:04 AM

I guess it depends who one is writing for. Writers musn't assume that everyone will understand the subtleties of everything they write, but contra to that, they shouldn't avoid such writing just to please the masses. It's very much a trial and error situation when writing and it is often difficult to reach all audiences. The extract you provided above is a case in point. Not only does the writer risk not communicating with a whole bunch of nonnative speakers, but also a whole generation of young people who have never really listened to those bands.

milky

joeviee

#243194 Thu, 06 Jul 06 09:53 AM

Milky wrote:

Writers musn't assume that everyone will understand the subtleties of everything they write, but contra to that, they shouldn't avoid such writing just to please the masses. It's very much a trial and error situation when writing and it is often difficult to reach all audiences. The extract you provided above is a case in point. Not only does the writer risk not communicating with a whole bunch of nonnative speakers, but also a whole generation of young people who have never really listened to those bands.

I agree with what you have said. Now that I know The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Who are once famous band but I still find it hard to grasp the gist of the whole passage the writer trying to say without looking at the explanation you provided earlier Sad [:(]

joeviee

milky

#243200 Thu, 06 Jul 06 10:02 AM

I understand, but what to do about it?

milky

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