MSGID: 2:221/1.0 694e4292
REPLY: 2:221/360.0 694d704c
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Hi, Anton Shepelev!
I read your message from 25.12.2025 20:11

 AS>>> Alexander quoted /Harry Potter/:
 AK>>>> What was the good of magicking himself out of
 AK>>>> his room if Hogwarts would expel him for doing
 AK>>>> it?
 AS>>> I think literary English requires "doing so"
 AS>>> instead of "doing it".
 AK>> IMHO you are sometimes too strict about English.

 AS> I try to learn and use correct English, and don't
 AS> agree that a thing can be too good, too correct,
 AS> too perfect. Things are usually insufficiently so,
 AS> whence my universal formula: The better the
 AS> better.

 AK>> It was Rowling after all, not me.

 AS> Yes, I know that she wrote /Harry Potter/, not
 AS> you, and was commening on Mrz. Rowling's English.
 AS> I am not accusing you of writing /doing it/
 AS> instead of /doing so/, but I am reproving you for
 AS> reading sub-par English, and I dare say sub-par
 AS> literature. If you don't start with the greatest
 AS> classics, you will never acquire good taste (and
 AS> arguing about taste is mostly useless :-)

I think things should natural after all, and every time has its own pattern.
Is a hop hat, a frock coat, together with a dandy walking stick is natural
nowadays? Unlikely, although it is accurate and expensive. Suppose you put the
mentioned things on and go along the streets. Certainly many people will note
you, but not because of aesthetic reasons. Can a queer bird has a right on
existence? Of course yes, although I would not put him as a head of state, as
for instance the Czech President now. ;-) The President should look like a
normal person. In this case, it is the better chance that he will do things
normally, too. ;-) And President should not play piano with... ah, well.

Well, where did I bolt? ;-) Ah, I mean that if we want to learn a real English
we should pay attention exactly to the real, present English, even if we don't
like new words, phrases and idioms.

 AK>> And we should remember immortal Bart Simpson's
 AK>> saying "I didn't do it!" ;-)

 AS> I for one abhor that animation, together with
 AS> South Park et al, because (to me) their characters
 AS> are made intentionally ugly -- to appeal to
 AS> teenagers strugging through puberty's hormonal
 AS> explosions, for lack of healthier emotional vents
 AS> and more constructive energy channels.

I believe it is not correct to state that the Simpsons are for children.

Bye, Anton!
Alexander Koryagin
english_tutor 2025

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