Last week I pitched my retrospective on Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” to a well-known film journal. The first paragraph:
Which brings me to Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut,” a film I stubbornly defended for years, never having enjoyed it all that much yet insisting its meandering pace was atmospheric brilliance, it’s performances purposefully off-rhythm, and it’s overall themes (the first sign that something was amiss: when we search for theme it usually indicates the story left us feeling dissatisfied) were “courageous” and—a sure sign of my bullshit—“open to interpretation.”
Notice anything wrong? Yep–the old its vs. it’s mistake. I’ve railed against this grammatical error for years, and while I don’t consider myself a full-on grammar snob (read: I consider public correction of grammatical mistakes–especially in a non-academic context–the lowest form of passive-aggressiveness) I am a bit of a written grammar tyrant. Words are our tools. (Thus begins my hokey metaphor.) They must be kept sharp and clean, and we must know how to use them. Confusing their/they’re/there drives me batty. As does using “could of” instead of “could have.”
Browse the Comments section of any Yahoo! article and–besides losing faith in the inherent goodness of man–you’ll find all sorts of rage-inciting writing errors that reaffirm the whole ignorance/intolerance connection. So how did I become a part of this? How could I submit such a poorly-edited opening paragraph to a well-known film journal about a subject I know very well?
Simple: I was multitasking when I wrote it. Specifically: I was watching Ninja Warrior. Add to this a subconscious arrogance about my abilities, and conditions were perfect.
Gasp. Shock. Horror. Always edit, always edit. Then edit some more.
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