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"being" in this context
Meaning of italic text

(The above two links are previous discussions related to this post.)

Taken from Happiness for Humans by P.Z. Reizin

Okay, I am. Just a bit. 8.603 per cent tempted if you’d like me to put a figure on it.

Jen and I know a lot about one another’s taste in music and films. Books and art too. And television. And material from the depthless ocean that is the internet. We have passed the last nine months listening, watching, reading and chatting about little else. She sometimes tells me she has the best job in the world, being paid to spend all day talking to a highly intelligent companion about whatever takes our fancy.

Companion. That’s what she calls me. The word she has settled upon. I’m fine with companion. Better than the ridiculous name I was given at ‘birth’.
Aiden.
Aiden.
Ha!
Because it starts with the letters…
Well, you work it out.

Questions:

  1. Does the word "art" here refer to only "paintings, drawings, or sculptures, which are objects, for people to look at"(narrorwer sense) or "various creative activities in general, including both objects (or visual) and non-objects (or non-visual): paintings, drawings, sculptures, music, dance, acting, literature"(wider sense)? (Maybe the narrower sense? Because two examples (music and films) of the wider sense are previously mentioned?)

  2. Does "material from the internet" here mean anything (or any material) Jen looks up and accesses on the internet?

  3. Does "little else" here mean "little (or trifle) things other than music, films, books, art, television, and material from the internet"?

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    You have being, comma were and am, and those are not in your text. Fyi, art is art. The arts includes a broader category of activities. You can look all these up.
    – Lambie
    Commented Oct 26 at 13:55
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    What @Lambie re the scope of "art" here (but honestly, does it matter?). Obviously "material from the internet" here does mean anything (or any material) Jen looks up and accesses on the internet. But "little else" doesn't mean "little (or trifle) things" - it just means not much else / not many other things (apart from what's already been mentioned).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 26 at 14:28
  • "and art" appears alongside music, films, books, television. Are you seriously suggesting you can't make a reasonable guess as to the (approximate) scope of "art" there? Who cares whether it includes "creative" carpentry, flower arranging, dancing, garden landscaping,... as well as paintings, drawings, or sculptures. What possible difference can it make to the overall sense?
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 26 at 14:57
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    We're getting closer to 'literary interpretation' than 'learning English' here. Little else means that almost all their conversations have been about the subjects already mentioned.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Oct 26 at 15:25
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    If those comments were addressed to me, thank you, but you need to start with @KateBunting to alert me to them! What I mean is that guessing what the author meant by art and material from the internet isn't really dependent on the dictionary definitions of the words. Your guess about art is probably the right one. And FumbleFingers had already explained that little else means " not much else / not many other things (apart from what's already been mentioned)."
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Oct 26 at 19:41

1 Answer 1

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  1. Since "art" is added to a list that already includes other creative activities, it must be intended to have the narrower sense. If they meant to encompass creative activities in general, they would have said something like other types of art. Or they wouldn't have enumerates specific types of art at all, and said

Jen and I know a lot about one another's taste in art.

  1. Yes, "material from the Internet" means anything you might find on the web. But since the context is about people's tastes, they're probably only referring to creative works (e.g. "cat videos"), not factual material like news and wikipedia.

  2. The idiom "little else" means "almost nothing else". "little" doesn't refer to the size or significance of the things being discussed, but the amount of material other than the previously mentioned categories.

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  • This is very dependent on context. If they were talking about politics, then taste in television could refer to which news channels they like. But if it's leisure, it could mean reality shows versus comedies or dramas. Since the Internet has everything, we'd have similar understanding there. This is all just common sense, not really about language -- I'm sure you have similar phrases in your native language.
    – Barmar
    Commented Oct 27 at 13:08

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