Inconsistent information

The logic exam in Bari didn't go too badly after all... which made me think that logic in itself is a bit like walking: not so natural for our species, but doable and doable rather well, if the right circumstances arise.

Even the best of us seem to be prone to lapses. Take Yourcenar's famous Oeuvre au Noir (Paris: Gallimard, 1968). Within thirty pages or so one of the characters, Dolet, dies twice, and of different deaths, if I'm not mistaken.
On p. 151 we read (apologies for the missing accents): "Dolet ... mon libraire ... il n'ent pas l'occasion d'essayer de ma dragee, s'etant fait depecher a Venise dans une ruelle obscure par le meme spadassin qui l'avait manque en France. "
But on p. 185: "Depuis qu' Etienne Dolet, san premier libraire, avait ete etrangle et gete au feu pour opinions subversives, Zenon n'avait plus publie en France."

Tzt... tzt... tzt... it looks like Mdme Yourcenar will not pass the logic test either.
Yes, the test in Bari did not go so badly at all.

Comments

  1. What íf the inconsistency is a narratological device which is used deliberately...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Or perhaps the swordsman broke his sword and had to resort to strangling?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

(revised on Medium) On a sachet of brown sugar (series: notes to myself)

Breve commento su "Non è il mio lutto" e la morte di Berlusconi.

Onlife: Sulla morte di Corman McCarthy e "the best writers" della letteratura americana

Sulla morte come "distanza che si apre nella vita"

The Loebner Prize from a judge's perspective

On the importance of being pedantic (series: notes to myself)

On the art of biting one's own tongue (series: notes to myself)

Between a rock and a hard place: Elon Musk's open letter and the Italian ban of Chat-GPT