The countability of "memoir" and "stocktaking" in this sentence

Question

I find two nouns in this sentence from a Time article very strange.

The Atlantic columns are enriched with personal memoir, and a stocktaking, as Coates takes the reader through his own life and reflects on how the columns relate to the present.

The noun memoir, as far as I know, should be a count noun. This apparently is supported by dictionaries, see here and here. I would have said:

The Atlantic columns are enriched with personal memoirs

Is this a mistake on the part of the Time editor?

On the other hand, I thought stocktaking was uncountable (again, so say the dictionaries, here and here). I thought people normally say "I got some stocktaking to do." or "It's time for stocktaking." However, I did find an example sentence on Merriam Webster that reads:

It is time for a stocktaking.

Giving it more thought, I can sort of understand why stocktaking is used countably sometimes. My guess is it is similar to reality checks or inventory checks, depending on the usage. But when is it a count noun and when a mass noun? Does it depend upon the meaning?

Answer 1

The first is actually not a mistake, but rather a creative writing technique to metaphorically relate one thing to another thing. A similar example:

Her speech was pure John F. Kennedy but with an Obama flair.

Obviously a "speech" can't be a person, so consider it shorthand for "like Kennedy's speeches". In a similar way, your example isn't saying that the columns are a memoir, but rather they include memoir-like elements.

Since this is a kind of literary device, I wouldn't recommend using it until you get a good feel for the nuance. And, as with any creative writing technique, it's best used sparingly, for special emphasis.

You might also see something similar, but with the adjectival "-y" or "-esque" suffixes appended to the noun.

The speech was Kennedy-esque, but with an Obama-y flair.

However, these weaken the comparison. The simile "A is like B" is less definite than the (literary) metaphor "A is B". (more on simile vs. metaphor)

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As you might expect, the writer's creative use of "a stocktaking" is also not incorrect. Still, as it plays games with the grammatical structure of the sentence, it's a little disconcerting even for native speakers. The core sentence is:

The Atlantic columns are a stocktaking (of a certain series of events).

The countable "stocktaking" is a kind of shorthand for "a means to take stock", which is to say, "to list or record in detail". Another example:

The acrimonious board meeting turned into a pointless stocktaking of the current CEO's faults, rather than a discussion of how to fix the company's current problems.

Even though your sources say "stocktaking" is uncountable, I don't see anything wrong with this use.