Dearest Gloria - Heavenletter #3573-3575
Heavenletters #3573-3575 are proofed.
Heavenletter #3574- A Dancer on the Stage of Life
3rd paragraph, 4th line
Good luck with this one in translations.
Should the sentence..."What else is there to do but laugh at all the intrigue that seems to go on on the face of Earth?" have a question mark ? Also I know sometimes I get "comma" happy, but, should we have a bit of a pause between "on, on"???
"In any case, you are here with some of your life behind you and some of your life ahead of you. Let’s make merry! Whatever streets you have gone down, amiss or straight on, let’s make merry. What else is there to do but laugh at all the intrigue that seems to go on on the face of Earth. Who could make up a story with a plot like the one you are in? How would it be told, and how would you tell it? You are acting out the story right now."
As a foreigner I don't have
As a foreigner I don't have any difficulty with "what is going on on Earth". Going on is a verbal locution that can accept a variety of prepositions depending on the rest of the sentence, e.g. "what is going on with you", etc.
But sometimes I have doubts about sentences that we would end normally with a question mark but that we don't find in the english text. The sentence you are pointing at is an example.
Like Normand, I have no
Like Normand, I have no difficulties with things going on on Earth or even going on on online forums.
The missing "?" is a rather frequent little bug. Years ago we had a discussion (which I can't find right now; it may have been on the blog) where Gloria said that many sentences that are formally questions but not actually questions or questions only to some small degree should really have smaller question marks or none at all. But then she added that although this would be her personal preference, in Heavenletters always the correct form should be used. Which would mean that the sentence Nancy asks about needs a question mark.
You two guys!
Dearest Jochen AND Normand,
You two guys are so unbelievable...I thought I learned quite a bit in school. I guess I was wrong because you two always leave me thirsting for more.
In gratitude.
Love to You,
Nancy
Jochen, I like your "going
Jochen, I like your "going on on online" but of course I would then agree with Nancy to give a break to the reader even in English. In french, we were thaught to avoid as often as possible repetetions of the same word by looking for synonyms or periphrases.
And then I agree totally with Gloria's point of view that you are accurately reporting: "those that are formally questions but not actually questions…" I would call them interrogative statements which would be statements with an interrogative flavor. Yet, "always the correct form should be used". From the reader's stand point, it is expected.