TERRIBLE LINES

I like it!

I like it too! It depends on the type of man really.

Very Pratchett, really.

For me it would depend on the setting where the line appeared. You have to set up a line like that or it's awfully coy.

It worked very well in context. Particularly since a chasm had just opened at his feet.

a wonderful book, so beautiful. i must admit i can't make much sense of that line and i've just read it in context, but let's try.

i suppose Jack Boughton (who says "Ah") is momentarily plunged into a state of confusion at the kindness that has been extended towards him of which he doesn't find himself at all deserving. it increases momentarily, the sense of distance between Jack and the Narrator: The chasm, which is bridged by an old joke (one assumes) and then by Jack returning a compliment.

the "you" in this excerpt is the narrator's young son - the book is an extended letter to him.

I said "It has been a great happiness to your father, having you here."

He said "That man's a saint."

"That might be true, but it was still good of you to come."

"Ah, he said, as a man might when a chasm has opened at his feet.

So there was a silence for a few minutes and then your mother stood up and lifted you out of the quilt and carried you away to bed.

"I have been glad to see you too." I said, because i really was for old Boughton's sake.

To that he made no reply.

"I say that quite sincerely."

He stretched out his legs and leaned back against the porch pillar.

"No doubt." he said.

"Stack of bibles?"

He laughed. "How High?"

"A cubit or so"

"That'll do, i guess."

"Would two cubits put your mind at ease?"

"Entirely" and then, remembering his manners, "It has been good to see you again. And Meeting your wife, Your family."

Then we were quiet for a bit.

and "Oof, did i cry" at that book.

the "ah" would be a sort of resigned, doomed "i see" sort of remark, as opposed to a shout.

Don't forget jed_ that this was a man who had been dearly loved by the narrator when a child, a man who intentionally breached the trust of the narrator and never expected to receive the forgiveness granted by the narrator by those few words, the acknowledgement that he was not irredeemable, though he considered himself wholly lost. That is the chasm, the maw of hope. He pulls himself back from it quickly. "No doubt", he said.

It IS a beautiful book. No doubt.

Did anyone else see this thread title and immediately think of Pretty Hate Machine?