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Maelstrom Posted 11 years ago
Vocabulary
Just a little confusion over here
Quoting from the famous science literature work "Pale Blue Dot":
"Our own life, or your band's, or even your species' might be owed to a restless few—drawn, by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands and new worlds. "
I can hardly understand the punctuation here(shouldn't the dash be skipped or substituted by a comma? Also I think that comma preceded by "drawn" should be, too)
Most importantly, what does the "band" there mean? Also what does it imply by the "life" of your band??? Does it really mean a musical band that teenagers are into forming???
"Our own life, or your band's, or even your species' might be owed to a restless few—drawn, by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands and new worlds. "
I can hardly understand the punctuation here(shouldn't the dash be skipped or substituted by a comma? Also I think that comma preceded by "drawn" should be, too)
Most importantly, what does the "band" there mean? Also what does it imply by the "life" of your band??? Does it really mean a musical band that teenagers are into forming???
Top answer
The dash seems OK to me. The comma after "drawn" is the first of a pair of parenthetical commas surrounding the phrase "by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand". I very much doubt that "band" means musical group.
- The dash seems OK to me.
- The comma after "drawn" is the first of a pair of parenthetical commas surrounding the phrase "by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand".
- I very much doubt that "band" means musical group.
- Earlier in the passage he talks of nomadic bands, so I think it must be meant in the general "group of people" sense.
- ".
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1 Answers
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The dash seems OK to me. The comma after "drawn" is the first of a pair of parenthetical commas surrounding the phrase "by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand".
I very much doubt that "band" means musical group. Earlier in the passage he talks of nomadic bands, so I think it must be meant in the general "group of people" sense.
I believe that the original says "
I very much doubt that "band" means musical group. Earlier in the passage he talks of nomadic bands, so I think it must be meant in the general "group of people" sense.
I believe that the original says "
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