Timeline for Is "[...]by only no state-prison offenses correct[...]?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
9 events
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| Mar 27, 2023 at 17:42 | comment | added | Greybeard | @jsw29 To be frank, I can't see the difference. The remark is an aside and I'm sure Thoreau's readers did not want a lecture on the American judicial and penal systems but simply took the obvious meaning. | |
| Mar 27, 2023 at 14:48 | comment | added | jsw29 | Thoreau was an American, writing primarily for an American (i.e. U.S.) audience. | |
| Mar 26, 2023 at 20:40 | comment | added | Greybeard | @jsw29 his use of the term state-prison is, at best, pointless, and, at worst, confusing. Criticising Thoreau's writing style is very brave. I think it is safe to assume that not state-prison offenses has the meaning of "not criminal offences" without going too deeply into the American judicial and penal systems the finer details of which the rest of the world is probably blissfully unaware. | |
| Mar 26, 2023 at 18:45 | comment | added | jsw29 | I agree that it is likely that that's what he had in mind, but then what he is trying to say is that they do not do it by offenses that would put them in any kind of prison/jail. Incarceration in a state prison is not the only kind of incarceration that there is (at least in the U.S.), and his use of the term state-prison is, at best, pointless, and, at worst, confusing. A full analysis of this passage should say so. | |
| Mar 26, 2023 at 17:23 | comment | added | Greybeard | Yes but Thoreau is saying that these people do not use criminal means - they use immoral (or at least, dubious) means. | |
| Mar 26, 2023 at 16:14 | comment | added | jsw29 | People do get put in local jails for committing crimes (only less serious ones than would put one in a state-prison); that's one of the purposes of jails. | |
| Mar 26, 2023 at 16:11 | comment | added | Greybeard | @jsw29 that would put you in, say, a local (county) jail? No... it means "by criminal means". | |
| Mar 26, 2023 at 16:05 | comment | added | jsw29 | OK, but is 'you do not do it by offenses that would put you in state-prison' meant to leave it open that 'you' do it by offenses that would put you in, say, a local (county) jail? in other words, is 'state-prison' qualification meant to do some serious job here, or is it just a pointless embellishment? | |
| Mar 16, 2023 at 20:43 | history | answered | Greybeard | CC BY-SA 4.0 |