"Just another being living luminously between two eternities of darkness."
This is a sentence that was someone's bio on some social media. What does the word being and luminously mean here? Is the entire construction grammatically correct?
asked Oct 7, 2017 at 13:22
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2Did you look up being and luminously in a dictionary? What relevant definitions did you find? Hint, in that sentence, being is a noun (as you can see it’s the subject of the verb living) and luminously is being employed figuratively, or at least poetically.– Dan BronCommented Oct 7, 2017 at 13:31
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I did look the meanings of both words in the dictionary. Being means existence, or at least that's one of the definitions of the word. So, I take it, in this context, it probably means just another living thing, or just another soul, something along those lines. Am I wrong?– Pleep PloopCommented Oct 7, 2017 at 13:38
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I don't understand the significance of the word luminously here. The sentence would be fine without it.– Pleep PloopCommented Oct 7, 2017 at 13:40
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That’s the kind of research and reflection you should edit directly into your question to make it more specific, attractive, and answerable. Telling your readers what research you already did, and what doubts remain in the wake of that research, helps them understand better your specific need and allows them to provide more focused guidance around the conundrum. Please do edit that comment into your question here, and for future similar questions, always tell people where you’ve already looked, what you’ve already found, and what specific questions remain.– Dan BronCommented Oct 7, 2017 at 13:42
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Sentences aren’t constructed with the aim of being “grammatically correct” or “linguistically inoffensive”, they’re constructed to convey the meaning their author wants them to convey. In this case, sure, removing that word would leave the sentence “fine”, but it would also change the meaning; presumably that specific word is in there because it conveys an idea the author specifically wanted to convey. It’s similar to saying “the red house is very nice”, and observing “that sentence would be fine without the word red”, well, sure, it would be. But it wouldn’t create the same image, or idea.– Dan BronCommented Oct 7, 2017 at 13:43
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1 Answer
This isn't a sentence but a noun phrase. There is no tensed verb. It is a bio-tag, so there is an implied "I am".
[I am] just another being living luminously between two eternities of darkness.
"I am just another being" means "I am one of many creatures who are like me", that is, "I am not unique".
The non-finite clause "living luminously between two eternities of darkness" is a subject modifier indicating what this creature does. It lives between two eternities of darkness, presumably the pre-birth eternity that stretches backwards in time and the post-death eternity that stretches forward in time.
luminously is an adverb expressing the mode of living, "full of brightness". This seems to be an allusion to the idea that living creatures, or even all things that exist, have an "inner light". As an example, John Scotus Eriugena, the 9th century Irish philosopher wrote, "All things that are, are lights".
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Correct, and the word creates a contrast of the bright moment of life between those two eternal darknesses.– Dan BronCommented Oct 7, 2017 at 17:08