Why You Should Boldly Split Infinitives

Have you ever been condemned by a teacher for using a split infinitive? It's one of the stock grammatical no-no's wielded by English teachers. For example, I was once marked down on a paper for splitting an infinitive in this sentence: "Naval forces were eventually able to completely control the Mississippi River." The issue is that "to control" is an infinitive verb, and supposedly it is an error to insert any other words in between "to" and the rest of the verb.

However, this is an artificial "rule" created by grammarians in a misguided attempt to make English more like Latin. The thinking in the 18th/19th centuries went like this: Latin is the most prestigious language in Western culture, and it has a large, complicated grammar with lots of nitpicky rules. English is an upstart language, and if it's going to rise up in the world it needs to be more like Latin. This attitude led to the creation of many stupid and arbitrary grammatical rules; one of them was the split infinitive rule. In Latin, an infinitive verb was a single word; it was impossible to split. Since Latin infinitives were unsplittable, the thinking went, English ones should be too. Thus the rule was born.

However, according to Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage, "there is nothing grammatically wrong with the split infinitive," and it's often the clearest way to say what you want to say. It's also been used since the 13th century and by writers like Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. In addition, a split infinitive is essential to the famous Star Trek introductory sequence:

Space... the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before.

If you tried to "fix" this split infinitive, you would only screw up this classic line.

Instead, with the facts on your side, you should boldly split infinitives any time you want.

Why You Should to Write in Simple Language

Any fool can write learned language. The vernacular is the real test. If you can't turn your faith into it, then either you don't understand it, or you don't believe it.

- C.S. Lewis, from a letter quoted in Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis, by George Sayer, 271.

Awesome HD Timelapse of Eyjafjallajökull Eruption

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull - May 1st and 2nd, 2010 from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Watch it on Vimeo to see it in HD.

(HT: Jon O'Neal)

C.S. Lewis on "Childish" Things

Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. . . . When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. 

- C.S. Lewis, "On Three Ways of Writing for Children" in On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature, ed. Walter Hooper, 34.

The King of Kong

Last night I descended into the cutthroat world of world-class competitive classic arcade gaming when my friends Matt and Becky introduced me the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. It is absolutely side-splittingly hilarious and simulaneously sad, because the subjects take themselves so seriously. You should check it out if you like video games or if you like to laugh at people who like video games.

This is the legendary Walter Day, who calls all the shots and wears this referee outfit because he's so authoritative.

This is how fast technology has improved

20GB in 1980 vs 32GB in 2010

(HT: Josh Sowin)

High-Five Etiquette

Learn how to avoid those awkward high-five screw-ups.

Free New Fonts

I just got some free fonts from Smashing Magazine. Here's what they look like:


Smashing Magazine is a great design blog, and they regularly post awesome free fonts from around the web. Check out their typography posts here.

Typography

On a barely related note, my good friend and Resurgence art director Matt Aebersold has a great blog post up with some notes on the history and development of typography:

Read his whole post here. He's got cool art and design-related stuff on his blog all the time, and he posts a lot more than I do.

If you like typography, check out these old foreign-language typefaces:

This is a crop from a 1728 typeface specimen sheet by William Caslon. You can see the whole high-resolution image here. Caslon was an Englishman who designed guns and typefaces in the early 1700s, and he basically became one of the founding fathers of English typography. The font I used for the first image in this post is based on his work.

50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice

Geoffrey Pullum, a top linguist, on why Strunk & White's Elements of Style is full of nonsense:

• 50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice

A few excerpts:

The book's toxic mix of purism, atavism, and personal eccentricity is not underpinned by a proper grounding in English grammar. It is often so misguided that the authors appear not to notice their own egregious flouting of its own rules. They can't help it, because they don't know how to identify what they condemn. . . .

It's sad. Several generations of college students learned their grammar from the uninformed bossiness of Strunk and White, and the result is a nation of educated people who know they feel vaguely anxious and insecure whenever they write "however" or "than me" or "was" or "which," but can't tell you why. The land of the free in the grip of The Elements of Style.

Read the whole thing here.

5 Christmas Albums That Aren't Lame

For the past couple years I've been gathering a collection of Christmas hymns that (1) aren't lame and (2) are actually about Jesus. Here are my top Advent hymn collections so far:

1. Sojourn - Advent Songs
2. Indelible Grace - Your King Has Come
3. Mars Hill - Silent Night
4. High Street Hymns - Love Shall Be Our Token
5. Red Mountain Church - Silent Night
   

I also love Sandra McCracken's song "This Is the Christ" (based on a Christmas hymn written by Martin Luther), and the song "This Is War" by Dustin Kensrue of Thrice (thanks to my friend Nick for introducing me to that one).

I'm still looking for more, so comment if you know of more good stuff.

Amazon quick link builder

Update 2: Better Amazon Referral Link Builder
Genius volunteer Valor Poland came up with a better Amazon affiliate link builder for the Resurgence.


Click and drag this link to your bookmarks toolbar (or right-click and add to favorites):
new and improved amazon bookmarklet

Then go to Amazon, find the book you want to link to, and click the bookmarklet in your toolbar (or favorites); the URL should change to the one with the Resurgence affiliate ID. Copy this URL to use for your Amazon link.

If you get an error message, search again in Amazon for the book you're looking at and click on it. Then try again.

Update: ChristianAudio referral link builder (3/29/10)

Click and drag this link to your bookmarks toolbar (or right-click and add to favorites):
christianaudio bookmarklet

Then try it out: Go to a product page on ChristianAudio.com (here's one) and then click the bookmarklet you just added to your toolbar. The URL should have changed to include a referral code at the end. Use this URL when linking to any product page on ChristianAudio.com.

A big thanks to my great friend Matt Aebersold for helping me figure this out.

Luther: The Multitude of Books Is a Great Evil

Martin Luther, Table Talk No. 911

The multitude of books is a great evil. There is no measure or limit to this fever for writing; every one must be an author; some out of vanity, to acquire celebrity and raise up a name; others for the sake of lucre and gain. The Bible is now buried under so many commentaries, that the text is nothing regarded. I could wish all my books were buried nine ells deep in the ground, by reason of the ill example they will give, every one seeking to imitate me in writing many books, with the hope of procuring fame. But Christ died not to favour our ambition and vain-glory, but that his name might be glorified.

The aggregation of large libraries tends to divert men's thoughts from the one great book, the Bible, which ought, day and night, to be in every one's hand. My object, my hope, in translating the Scriptures, was to check the so prevalent production of new works, and so to direct men's study and thoughts more closely to the divine Word. Never will the writings of mortal man in any respect equal the sentences inspired by God. We must yield the place of honour to the prophets and the apostles, keeping ourselves prostrate at their feet as we listen to their teaching. I would not have those who read my books, in these stormy times, devote one moment to them which they would otherwise have consecrated to the Bible.

Samuel Johnson on Language Change

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), was an English writer and lexicographer, and the author of A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), one of the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language. In his Preface to the Dictionary, he writes eloquently about the reality of language change and the futility of trying to hold it back:

Those who have been persuaded to think well of my design, require that it should fix our language, and put a stop to those alterations which time and chance have hitherto been suffered to make in it without opposition. With this consequence I will confess that I have flattered myself for a while; but now begin to fear that I have indulged expectation which neither reason nor experience can justify. When we see men grow old and die at a certain time one after another, from century to century, we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand years; and with equal justice may the lexicographer be derided, who being able to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from corruption and decay, that it is in his power to change sublunary nature, and clear the world at once from folly, vanity, and affectation.

With this hope, however, academies have been instituted, to guard the avenues of their languages, to retain fugitives, and repulse intruders; but their vigilance and activity have hitherto been vain; sounds are too volatile and subtle for legal restraints; to enchain syllables, and to lash the wind, are equally the undertakings of pride, unwilling to measure its desires by its strength.

-Quoted in Robert McCrum, Robert MacNeil, and William Cran, The Story of English, 3rd rev. ed. (New York: Penguin, 2003), 139.

Book Review: No god but God

No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam, by Reza Aslan (New York: Random House, 2006), 342 pages.

This book is a very lucid and engaging overview of the history of Islam, written by a young Iranian-American scholar of religions. I picked up this book a couple years ago, but was spurred on to reading it by the current uprising in Iran, hoping to get a better understanding of the cultural forces undergirding some of the most momentous events of the age.

Aslan does a great job revealing the cultural milieu in which Islam was born, beginning with a chapter on pre-Islamic Arabia before moving on to the life of Muhammad, the founding of the first Muslim community in Medina, the rapid expansion of Islam after the Prophet’s death, and the rise of the Muslim Caliphates. He devotes special attention to clarifying some of the most-misunderstood aspects of Islam, including a chapter on the meaning of jihad. Aslan shows how Islamic theology and law developed as the power of interpreting the Qur’an became centralized in the hands of the Ulama, the clerical establishment. The story becomes more complicated as various power-struggles and differing interpretations of Islam lead to fractures and the various camps that exist today, including Sunni (orthodox), Shi‘ite, and Sufi Muslims, as well as smaller, more radical sects and interpretations, such as Khomeinism, Wahhabism, and the Taliban.

Aslan’s major theme is the refutation of the idea that Islam is fundamentally opposed to democracy, pluralism, and human rights. He presents Muhammad’s Medina as a radical experiment in egalitarianism and pluralism in its Arab tribal social context, and his presentation of the history makes the case that in the ensuing centuries Islamic leaders often interpreted Muhammad’s message far differently than it was originally envisioned. This leads to the culmination of the book, where Aslan argues that Islam is headed for a “reformation” to parallel the Protestant Reformation, in which the original vision for the faith will be reinterpreted or regained. The violence of groups like Al-Qaeda, he argues, points to the rumblings of this coming Reformation, because they primarily represent a struggle within Islam for the future of the faith.

Aslan’s book is grippingly well-written and fascinating in both its broad coverage and interesting detail. He doesn’t come across as completely objective, however, because he clearly aims to promote his vision of an enlightened Islam and his hope for an Islamic Reformation. It seems like he glosses over some of the questions that have been raised about Muhammad’s integrity and especially the brutality of Islam’s military expansion, saying in effect, “The Christians and Zoroastrians did it too!” Because of this at least apparent lack of objectivity I will probably want to read another perspective on Islam’s history. However, all things considered, I found this book fascinating reading and highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get an overview of the history of Islam.

You can check out more of Reza Aslan's stuff here.