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Aramahosi Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Indulge in?

"Bioy Casares had had dinner with me that evening and we became lengthily engaged in a vast polemic concerning the composition of a novel in the first person, whose narrator would omit or disfigure the facts and indulge in various contradictions which would permit a few readers - very few readers - to perceive an atrocious or banal reality."
I couldn't find the proper definition of the "indulge in" in my dictionary. Is this a creative use of the verb?

The sentence is quoted from http://art.yale.edu/file_columns/0000/0066/borges.pdf
  

Top answer

" I would say that the writer has taken a small liberty, but one that is natural and common, eschewing "indulge in expressing various contradictions", or something like that, for the simpler, easier, better "indulge in various contradictions".

— Enoon

  • " I would say that the writer has taken a small liberty, but one that is natural and common, eschewing "indulge in expressing various contradictions", or something like that, for the simpler, easier, better "indulge in various contradictions".
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3 Answers
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Cambridge seems to have an applicable example: "We took a deliberate decision to indulge in a little nostalgia." I would say that the writer has taken a small liberty, but one that is natural and common, eschewing "indulge in expressing various contradictions", or something like that, for the simpler, eas
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Thanks very much but I have one more question. Is to express various contradictions something enjoyable...?
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aramahosiThanks very much but I have one more question. Is to express various contradictions something enjoyable...?
Presumably, it is for him. He also likes to distort the facts. The writer was being sarcastic.
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