(no subject)

[proximoception]

"[A]fter his wife's death in 1847 he drank heavily and died mysteriously in Baltimore."

Makes it seem as though dying is a repeated, habitual action like the drinking. Which I guess in Poe it kind of is.

Comments

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Bad syllepsis, or semi-syllepsis. The adverbs have something to do with it. Heavy drinking means something you do a lot of. But it's hard to think of an adverb that wouldn't make drinking a continuing activity. "Drank mysteriously"? "Drank suddenly" or "unexpectedly" would work, if those adverbs ever went with drinking.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

You can hardly drink and die in Baltimore without adverbs.

I think it identified his death date as '49 in the previous sentence. Which just made it weirder.