Timeline for What does "A man cannot be too careful in his choice of enemies" mean?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 13, 2015 at 23:28 | comment | added | WhatRoughBeast | "Is that very vain of me? I think that it is rather vain." In order to understand this, you have to keep in mind that vanity is one of those sins that no one will ordinarily admit to, any more than they would admit to being stupid. This is more of Wilde turning convention on its' head. Lord Henry, in a sense, values his enemies more than his friends (or at least he has higher standards for them), and he is perversely proud of his vanity. "Perverse" (not perverted) is a word you must always keep in mind when reading Wilde. | |
| Dec 24, 2013 at 2:15 | comment | added | Juya | I thank you a lot for your help. Kaz' asnswer is great as well. | |
| Dec 24, 2013 at 0:43 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | @user43947 Aha - I am just now discovering where your problem lies. I think Kaz' answer better than mine for that. HOWEVER: your new example probably gets into a quite different use, where somebody says something to the effect of "Don't get stressed, it's OK to be a little careless, but you cannot (=should not) be too careless." | |
| Dec 24, 2013 at 0:22 | comment | added | Juya | I think I need to see more examples of "cannot be too ..." to understand it completely. Would you give me some links so that I could study more on it? I just ran into another sentence which seemingly means exactly different "you cannot be too careless". Gosh! | |
| Dec 23, 2013 at 23:54 | comment | added | J.R.♦ | That's a good paraphrase, yes. | |
| Dec 23, 2013 at 23:50 | comment | added | Juya | So I am happy that this is really complicated. thank you for your second help:) Thus "is that very vain of me?" equals "Do you think I look too proud?" | |
| Dec 23, 2013 at 23:39 | comment | added | J.R.♦ | @user43 - If it still looks odd to you, that's a good sign. That's by design – even us native speakers have to stop for a moment and think about a sentence like this one. As for the "vain" part, the speaker is simply asking a rhetorical question: "Do I seem conceited [to assume my enemies appreciate me]? I suppose I do, in a way." | |
| Dec 23, 2013 at 23:14 | comment | added | Juya | Thank you. to tell you the truth, the structure still looks odd to me. but your explanation is very good. could you tell me what the last part "Is that very vain of me? I think that it is rather vain." mean? | |
| Dec 23, 2013 at 12:40 | history | answered | StoneyB on hiatus | CC BY-SA 3.0 |