A desert is a desert is a desert.

Question

The confusion of miracle impulse with sexual impulse is a major source of perceptual distortion, because it INDUCES rather than straightening out the basic level-confusion which underlies all those who seek happiness with the instruments of the world. A desert is a desert is a desert. You can do anything you want in it, but you CANNOT change it from what it IS.

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Hi,

What should the underlined part mean?

I have never met that kind of sentence structure....

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

pructus A desert is a desert is a desert. You can do anything you want in it, but you CANNOT change it from what it IS.

What should the underlined part mean?

I have never met that kind of sentence structure..

(What does the underlined part mean? I have never come across/seen that kind of structure before.)

It is a borrowing from the literary genius Gertrude Stein, who wrote: Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.

Stein quite often deliberately broke the rules of syntax for stylistic effect, and this is one of her better known sentences (though it is often misquoted). This particular one has been taken as an emphatic statement that a thing is what it is; its essence cannot be changed. I'm not convinced this was the exact meaning Stein had in mind when she wrote it, but that is the traditional meaning assigned to it.

CJ

Pructus · Answer

Oh, I see!!!

And also thanks for the correction on my writing.

Thanks a lot, Calif!!

A desert is a desert is a desert.

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