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Re: Help with otherworldly logic
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I think you do know what he means, don't you? The main thing is
that he knows things that aren't linguistic in nature, that whatever
he puts into words re transcendence isn't really to the point; it
can't even be pointed at with words. Very Zen.
On Nov 6, 2006, at 9:43 PM, NABOKV-L wrote:
>
> "I know more than I can express in words, and the little I can express
> would not have been expressed, had I not known more."
>
> There seems to be something the matter with this sentence. There
> seems
> to be some break down in grammatical or logical thought. Or else I
> simply don't understand.
>
> Could someone re-state this sentence in other words so that I can
> understand it? It's the second "not" that throws me. Does he know
> more,
> or doesn't he? If he had not known more, would he have expressed
> it or
> not?
>
> I tried changing the order to
>
> "Had I not known more than I can express in words, the little I can
> express would not have been expressed."
>
> This seems marginally more comprehensible, but I'm still baffled.
> Is he
> saying that if he knew less than he does he would have expressed it?
> Help!
Steven
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that he knows things that aren't linguistic in nature, that whatever
he puts into words re transcendence isn't really to the point; it
can't even be pointed at with words. Very Zen.
On Nov 6, 2006, at 9:43 PM, NABOKV-L wrote:
>
> "I know more than I can express in words, and the little I can express
> would not have been expressed, had I not known more."
>
> There seems to be something the matter with this sentence. There
> seems
> to be some break down in grammatical or logical thought. Or else I
> simply don't understand.
>
> Could someone re-state this sentence in other words so that I can
> understand it? It's the second "not" that throws me. Does he know
> more,
> or doesn't he? If he had not known more, would he have expressed
> it or
> not?
>
> I tried changing the order to
>
> "Had I not known more than I can express in words, the little I can
> express would not have been expressed."
>
> This seems marginally more comprehensible, but I'm still baffled.
> Is he
> saying that if he knew less than he does he would have expressed it?
> Help!
Steven
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm