Monday, September 19, 2005

retitling?

Perhaps in keeping with the anglophone tendency to begin book and movie titles with gerunds, I might change Water from a Skull to Drinking Water from a Skull. This would introduce a certain ambiguity, though. Would the title be (a) referring to the act of slurping water out of a cranium, or would it simply be (b) indicating that a certain skull contains drinking water?

To lay it out graphically, the ambiguity offers a choice between:

1. Drinking (Water from a Skull), i.e., the acting of drinking (X), and

2. (Drinking Water) from a Skull, i.e., (X) coming out of a skull

Some people say I have too much time on my hands.


_

3 comments:

Jason said...

How about "'From a Skull Drinking Water', by Yoda"?

Kevin Kim said...

OK, this cracked me up.


Kevin

Anonymous said...

Screw anglophone tendencies. I like "Water from a Skull." It has a balance and simplicity that "Drinking" would destroy.