I attacked with great resolution the editorial matter, and, reading it from beginning to end without understanding a syllable, conceived the possibility of its being Chinese, and so re-read it from the end to the beginning, but with no more satisfactory result.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker pretends not to understand editorial writing, comparing it to Chinese, and reads it backwards with no better result.
- In plain terms
- I read an editorial without understanding and pretended it was Chinese, then read it backwards but still did not get it.
- What can you take from it?
- Sometimes formal writing is so convoluted it becomes incomprehensible.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When have you pretended to understand?
- What makes writing incomprehensible?
Another view
It is a joke that does not teach how to improve.
More from Edgar Allan Poe
As for myself, I am simply Hop-Frog, the jester - and this is my last jest.
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