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Opening line of a chapter

Of an e-book in development:

Gabriel Zucman is not a drooling retard, he’s a competent economist; to the extent that I am not repeating myself.

11 thoughts on “Opening line of a chapter”

  1. The punctuation needs work.

    I don’t like “retard”; terribly unBritish. When I was a boy the poor souls were called “mental defectives”.

  2. Mark Twain previously used much the same stylistic device, but put it better:
    “Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.”
    When in doubt, copy an old master,

  3. But always please to call it ‘research’!
    It’s a good opening line and echoes a great writer, rumours of whose death, etc.

  4. But Tim, it’s a clumsy, unconvincing and distorted echo.
    Pecca fortitier, to quote a phrase you may not have come across at Ampleforth (good school that it is).
    I’m sure you could do better,

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