Monday, July 04, 2005
LIKE CRETANS DO
Chris Sheil really doesn’t like people from Crete:
To a publisher, lunatics are one ideal type, to be distinguished from cretans, fools and morons. Most of us are a reasonable mix of these categories, says Eco, but publishers sort according to the pure types. Cretans press ice-cream cones into their foreheads and walk into revolving doors the wrong way, and are of no interest. Fools don’t say that cats bark, like cretans do, they talk about cats when everyone else is talking about dogs. This means fools are always in demand to break social ice, but as they have no creativity, they’re also of no interest to publishers.
Morons are a publisher’s nightmare. Anyone can spot a fool, not to mention a cretan, yet morons are tricky.
So is spelling. Earlier mentions of Chris and his language issues here and here.