Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Dallas Hinton:

 DH>  The writer is writing about events which have happened
 DH>  (past). We have no idea what (if anything) has transpired
 DH>  since. In any case, to suddenly shift from past to present
 DH>  would be quite jarring to the reader.

 AK>  BTW, Anton used such a time shift in his question. I was
 AK>  also told many times not to do such a thing in one sentence
 AK>  or even in one paragraph.


          Depends on the circumstances.  If a joke begins with e.g. "Three guys
go into a bar" I expect it to continue in the same vein.  OTOH... as I remarked
to Anton on April 30th... the preamble doesn't count.  The present tense may be
used if we're reporting on the words of a particular writer, regardless of when
they were written, or if we're adding ideas of our own.  Similarly, if there is
dialogue "s/he said" is independent of what's in the quoted material.

          I remember a song from the 1950's in which a woman tells her children
what her mother told her when she was a little girl... "What will be, will be".
Should you want to look up the lyrics, the name of this song is QUE SERA, SERA.

          Anton's question employs the present tense WRT what the author did...
an option which helps me as a reader sort it out from what other folks, real or
imagined, did.  IMHO Anton made the right choice because otherwise I might have
had to re-read the sentence to be sure who banished the devil in question.  :-)



 AK>  In one of his better tales, of which the original version
 AK>  was rejected by the mYopic editors,


          I concur that Anton was probably thinking of "myopic" in the sense of
lacking imagination or intellect.  As a near-sighted person I found it easier &
more enjoyable to read books than to endure the groans of my classmates when it
seemed I couldn't hit the broadside of a barn.  I also noticed... even in grade
two... that other people estimated my intelligence more favourably when I could
see the letters on the chalkboard.  History repeated itself when my high school
counsellors figured out that I knew words most kids my age didn't know....  :-Q



 AK>  he banished a DEMON (or THE DEVIL)


          Careful!  I would accept "a demon", or even "a devil", on the grounds
that there may be countless numbers of either.  But when you say "the devil" my
Anglophone brain tends to think you're referring to Lucifer, AKA Satan....  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+