Re: The Sensible Diana Athill

1

Sensibleness is the quality of being sensible

Sensibility has little to do with sensible

I looked it up

signed: nob flowmanus


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 9:44 AM
horizontal rule
2

"Sense and Sensibleness?"


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 9:46 AM
horizontal rule
3

1.2 is incorrect, but is correct for the meaning of "sensible" having to do with judgment rather than perception.

I wasn't perfectly sure which meaning of "sensible" you were working with.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 9:48 AM
horizontal rule
4

She sounds more shell-shocked than sensible. This, though, is pretty astute:

"Quite early in my career the image of a glass-bottomed boat came to me as an apt one for sex; a love-making relationship with a man offered chances to peer at what went on under his surface."

Part of what's interesting about sleeping with someone, even in a casual manner, is that you learn things about them that you never otherwise would.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 9:49 AM
horizontal rule
5

Sensible

2:Well, yeah. "Sense & Sensibility" = "Good judgment & accurate perception" If sensibility was good judgment you would have a simple redundancy.

If both "sense" and "sensibility" pertain to perception you have an extreme subtlety.

Sensibility


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 9:54 AM
horizontal rule
6

No, no. Elinor was the more sensible one, the one with better and more studied judgment. Marianne was the one more driven by emotion and feeling, i.e. her sensibilities. Fortunately at the end there is no conflict between the two drives, as after a period of some uncertainty both sisters ultimately find partners with whom marriage would be both a practical and an emotionally satisfying endeavor.


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 10:04 AM
horizontal rule
7

Your comment says no, no, but the remainder of it agrees with McManus. That's pretty much what he's saying, and you're both right.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 10:10 AM
horizontal rule
8

Apparently, I've de-railed the thread by misunderstanding the title of a novel I've never read.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 10:15 AM
horizontal rule
9

4.last: Cock size, for example. And O-face.


Posted by: togolosh | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 10:28 AM
horizontal rule
10

Part of what's interesting about sleeping with someone, even in a casual manner, is that you learn things about them that you never otherwise would.

But how am I better off for knowing that somebody has a tendency to fart while receiving oral sex?


Posted by: OFE | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 10:43 AM
horizontal rule
11

10: Blackmail.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 10:44 AM
horizontal rule
12

10: Knowing when to dodge.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 10:46 AM
horizontal rule
13

She sounds more shell-shocked than sensible.

That's just the journalist being sensational. She's really incredibly even-keeled about these turns of life.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 10:47 AM
horizontal rule
14

I didn't get the impression at all from that article that she was shell-shocked.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 10:56 AM
horizontal rule
15

not being governed by fear of consequences.

I find that, at least with certain impulsive people, it's more blind denial that a particular consequence could happen, or happen again, rather than some kind of fearlessness.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 10:58 AM
horizontal rule
16

OFE sounds shell-shocked though.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 10:58 AM
horizontal rule
17

It's probably easier to be "sensible" if you were born into an upper-middle-class background and go on to have a career full of associating with other privileged, educated people. Not many people get six memoirs published.

(Not to say she isn't quite endearing and chipper in that interview.)


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 11:10 AM
horizontal rule
18

Poor Witt had trouble getting her fourth memoir published and has been bitter ever since.


Posted by: Otto von Bisquick | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 11:16 AM
horizontal rule
19

15: I think that's right. The seriously impulsive people I've known deny highly probable consequences and observed results.

The older I get the less social fears affect me. I used to think I was sensitive to that sort of thing until I started reading Unfogged but y'all have recalibrated the scales for me. Now? I really don't give even a nanoshit if someone out there doesn't like what I'm wearing.


Posted by: Biohazard | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 11:16 AM
horizontal rule
20

I find that, at least with certain impulsive people, it's more blind denial that a particular consequence could happen, or happen again, rather than some kind of fearlessness.

That may be so. I only like novel, interesting impulsivity.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 11:19 AM
horizontal rule
21

Elinor had sense (i.e., judgment, prudence, etc), which made her sensible. Marianne had read too many gothic novels, which encouraged her to indulge in an excess of sensibility (passion, emotion, etc).


Posted by: Mary Catherine | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 11:39 AM
horizontal rule
22

I really don't give even a nanoshit if someone out there doesn't like what I'm wearing.

We've noticed.


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 11:40 AM
horizontal rule
23

I hope nobody notices what I'm wearing. I've been trading-off between the same two pants and three shirts for a week and a half now. Excepting the sweaty parts of the summer, I'd do that all the time. My inability to drink coffee without spilling usually stops me.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 02- 4-10 12:04 PM
horizontal rule