9 Comments

As an avid history fan who's dived deep into WW1, this sentence is pitch perfect. Concussed as the verb is brilliant. You survive a concussion, but the effects linger...

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I agree! I really loved this sentence and the verb and sent me to the page to play around with words again.

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Sep 18, 2022Liked by Nina Schuyler

Nothing would ever be the same. (I love how this sentence does so much with only seven words. Verbs: the light, and the lightning.)

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light/lightning. I love it! What are you making with it?

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Sep 19, 2022Liked by Nina Schuyler

I don’t know! Still musing on the idea of the world in 1919, bewildered, confused, staggering about, trying to wrap its mind around what just happened…but, I’ll get back to you!

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Good! Love that you're playing with this...

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Play! Work and play as one, where the light and the lightning intersect!

(Also I think part of what makes this a powerful sentence is that the verb is normally I believe used as a noun, concussion, but is startling and fresh as a verb, implying a multiplicity of blows to the global head.)

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"Concussion" is more commonly used than the verb, "concuss." So even though the writer didn't make up a new word, it feels fresh.

By the way, light/lightning is playing with the technique of "polyptoton"--a stylistic scheme in which words derived from the same root are repeated. I love polyptoton!

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