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A certain antique piquancy here

“Everyone thinks one was frightfully brave, but it’s all bullshit,” he said. “One was merely doing one’s duty.”

12 thoughts on “A certain antique piquancy here”

  1. “he volunteered for a “special and hazardous duty” so a duty he volunteered for.

    Yes brave or stupid, Probably both.

  2. Some idiot in these comment threads recently claimed that I was quite wrong to say that there were Englishmen who used “one” to mean “I”. (I remarked on it because I find it a preposterous affectation.)

  3. What the Hell is going on with this spam fiasco Tim? Every morning the posts are vanishing. You need a permanent fix.

  4. Ecks,

    Just spotted (on the comments feed) some of the random porn spam winging in on some old threads (before Tim managed to hit delete on them). Problems of running a site, I guess?

  5. The German equivalent is “man”

    Man ging freiwillig in den Tod.

    It is using “you” for “one” that annoys me.

  6. Otto,

    That’s not first person usage, it’s third. You literally can’t say that in the past tense and first person. Not physically possible 😉

  7. dierieme,

    I like the use of one.

    One should know one’s place, manners, and decorum when dealing with ones superiors.

    And the Oxford comma!

  8. BiG

    Bah, haven’t you seen Sixth Sense ?
    Spoiler
    He was dead all along.

    But that’s my point. One should be used in the third person, really.

  9. @Ottokring December 5, 2019 at 4:38 pm

    It is using “you” for “one” that annoys me.

    +1 also using “Me and my xyz…” “I was sat in xyz…”

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