[kd5bjo]

It also might be worth noting that both pull quotes are things that Ah-Sen said in the questions, instead of things that Powell said in response.

Some interviewers aim to help to tell their subjects’ stories, but others are looking for a reason to hear themselves speak. This feels like the latter case.

[Jtsummers]

> It also might be worth noting that both pull quotes are things that Ah-Sen said in the questions, instead of things that Powell said in response.

One is from Powell, the other from Ah-Sen.

>> The attractive characteristic of a young narrator is the absurdity of it and the license of it. - Powell

>> The destiny of all books is to become unmoored from the time which birthed them. - Ah-Sen

[kd5bjo]

Mea culpa; I should know better than to comment when half asleep. Thanks for the correction.

[pictureofabear]

Also, shouldn't it be "berthed" not birthed?

[Ar-Curunir]

Er why would that be the case. To be unmoored is to be detached from something. So the quote is saying that the destiny of every book is to be detached and read outside the context in which it was written (birthed).

[basil-rash]

To be berthed is to be attached to your home, as a boat. It makes way more sense to keep the nautical analogy going than to switch it over to biology. This was likely a transcription error and/or pun.

[Amezarak]

It's just a mixed metaphor. They are very common in bad writing, which isn't to say they themselves are always bad. The surrounding words make it clear it's not a typo. "which _____ them" does not make sense and would be very rare usage for "berthed".

We are born into a time and moored to it. Books are not. Books are distinct from people in this way. That's the point.

Since part of the interview is making fun of the way the questions are worded, it also fits in that respect.

[basil-rash]

"which berthed them" makes perfect sense, and fits just as well as any other past participle would in that context. Just because a usage of a word is rare does not mean an experienced author cannot choose to invoke it. In fact, the opposite. Again though, I think the author knew damn well what they were doing and intended for it to be a pun (which would still be arguably berthed-forward).

[mrkstu]

Unless you’re going for some meta-joke, no.

[basil-rash]

Why not? If we’re starting with this nautical analogy (unmoored), immediately flipping to a biological one is odd. I strongly suspect this was a transcription error and/or intentional pun - the two are pronounced identically.

[tyingq]

It almost works, but "berthed" doesn't imply "created", since it means something more like "parked".

So that doesn't read right with:

"The destiny of all books is to become unmoored from the time which birthed them. - Ah-Sen"

It could have used both maybe? "...and then berthed in the present"

[basil-rash]

You’re reading “created” into it to justify that interpretation. If you assume he meant created then sure go with birthed, but that doesn’t prove anything beyond your initial assumption.

A “berthed”-friendly interpretation would be “all books start off tied to a particular point in time, it is their destiny to become free of their temporal bounds, to drift through eternity”

[bryanrasmussen]

If it were birthed it might be smarter to say orphaned or alienated or something that follows the parentage metaphor instead of unmoored.

If it were berthed it would make more sense to be something like "The destiny of all books is to become unmoored from the time where they were originally berthed".

But it is more common in English to use birthed as created than this kind of extended nautical metaphor.

And it is more common for people to mix their metaphors, especially when they are trying to sound clever.

Therefore I think they mixed their metaphors a bit.

[basil-rash]

> But it is more common in English to use birthed as created than this kind of extended nautical metaphor.

The question isn't whether birthed is more common than extended nautical metaphors in general, the question is given that a nautical metaphor is already in place, what is the likelihood that metaphor is being extended, versus trampled and replaced with another?

> If it were berthed it would make more sense to be something like "The destiny of all books is to become unmoored from the time where they were originally berthed".

Only if the author is assuming the ship has been berthed many times. It might just as easily have been berthed once and adrift ever since. Being berthed in no way implies repetition.

[collingreen]

Slow clap

[OJFord]

In the TV series Julia there's a character who's an academic in literature and hosts a public access TV show interviewing authors; I thought it was a bit of a caricature, but it may as well be accurately modelled on Ah-Sen, underplaying it even.