Brian Aldiss
Both, each, or either?
I just started reading Helliconia Spring by Brian Aldiss last night. Within the first few pages, there is this sentence: “The larger animal resembled a yelk, with the same long skull about which elegant horns curled protectively on either side, …”
When I read “on either side,” I think of one side or the other, but not both. Would it be the same if it said, “on each side” or “on both sides?” I’ve seen this kind of writing in literature a lot and I hope it’s not just bad English like when I hear news reporters say “less people” on TV.
It is a quirk of English, but “on either side” can be used to mean “on one of the two sides” or “on both sides”.
You can say “you can pin your carnation on either side of your jacket” which means either one of the two sides; or you can say “the queen walked down the aisle, waving to the people on either side” meaning on both sides!
Just another of the idiosyncrasies which makes English such a rich and enjoyable language!
STANLEY AND US | Brian Aldiss and Stanley Kubrick’s AI
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A.I. – Artificial Intelligence (Full Screen Two-Disc Special Edition) $1.01 History will place an asterisk next to A.I. as the film Stanley Kubrick might have directed. But let the record also show that Kubrick–after developing this project for some 15 years–wanted Steven Spielberg to helm this astonishing sci-fi rendition of Pinocchio, claiming (with good reason) that it veered closer to Spielberg’s kinder, gentler sensibilities. Spielberg inherited the project (b… |
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A.I. Artificial Intelligence [VHS] $2.97 History will place an asterisk next to A.I. as the film Stanley Kubrick might have directed. But let the record also show that Kubrick–after developing this project for some 15 years–wanted Steven Spielberg to helm this astonishing sci-fi rendition of Pinocchio, claiming (with good reason) that it veered closer to Spielberg’s kinder, gentler sensibilities. Spielberg inherited the project (b… |
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Frankenstein Unbound [VHS] $3.78 … |
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A.I. Artificial Intelligence [VHS] $9.99 History will place an asterisk next to A.I. as the film Stanley Kubrick might have directed. But let the record also show that Kubrick–after developing this project for some 15 years–wanted Steven Spielberg to helm this astonishing sci-fi rendition of Pinocchio, claiming (with good reason) that it veered closer to Spielberg’s kinder, gentler sensibilities. Spielberg inherited the project (b… |
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A.I. Artificial Intelligence [Blu-ray] $13.50 History will place an asterisk next to A.I. as the film Stanley Kubrick might have directed. But let the record also show that Kubrick–after developing this project for some 15 years–wanted Steven Spielberg to helm this astonishing sci-fi rendition of Pinocchio, claiming (with good reason) that it veered closer to Spielberg’s kinder, gentler sensibilities. Spielberg inherited the project (b… |
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A.I. – Artificial Intelligence (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition) $3.70 Scripter/director Steven Spielberg’s realization of a long-in-the-works Stanley Kubrick project is set in a future where robots are used as workers and for human companionship. A couple adopts David, the first “mecha” designed to love, as a replacement for their cryogenically frozen son. But when the boy recovers, David is abandoned and undertakes a perilous quest to become “a real boy.” Haley Joe… |
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Star Maker $8.95 50th Anniversary edition of this highly acclaimed Science Fiction novel. This edition includes some additional material not published in earlier editions, with a new Foreword by Brian Aldiss…. |
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Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture $14.00 The vampire is one of the nineteenth century’s most powerful surviving archetypes, owing largely to Bela Lugosi’s portrayal of Dracula, the Bram Stoker creation. Yet the figure of the vampire has undergone many transformations in recent years, thanks to Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and other works, and many young people now identify with vampires in complex ways.Blood Read explores these transfo… |
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Brian W. Aldiss … |
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