It turns out that the drumming in "Creep" is actually kind of unsubtle and even obtrusive
Two quotations, both from the most recent NYRB, but which illustrate a sentence structure found quite widely elsewhere as well: One senator who, strangely, didn't sign on to the bill was John McCain.
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Two recent collections are Matha Ann Selby's Grow Long, Blessed Night: Love Poems from Classical India (Oxford University Press, 2000) and Andrew Schelling The Cane Groves of the Narmada River: Erotic Poems from Old India (City Lights Books, 1998).
. One thing I detest is such sentences; there seems to be an oddly pointless inversion about them, which results in lenition and bathos rather than fortification. In the first sentence quoted, for instance, I assume that the author's purpose was to defer mentioning McCain until after it had been established that some senator did something strange, but it doesn't quite work very well as a shocking revelation (and not just because I already knew who it was who hadn't signed on and would be relevant to mention as not having done so). Though I can't quite articulate why.
Comments
on 2008-06-14 8:39:29.0, Matt Weiner commented:
The second sentence wouldn't work at all unreversed, because the subject is so ungodly long.
and, further, on 2008-06-14 10:20:30.0, ben wolfson commented:
It could be rewritten. "Recently, two new collections have been published:", say.
and, further, on 2008-06-15 9:24:54.0, Irene commented:
I agree with you on that.