Beyond comprehension

When I was at junior school we used to do something called "comprehension". It was pretty simple stuff, you read a short piece of writing and then answered some basic questions on it in order to show that you had understood what it was that you had just read.

I suspect this sounds familiar to a lot of you.

However this basic skill seems to be beyond the capacity of a large number of WMA practitioners.

Take for example the recent comment on my post "A Victory" by Baskethit (sic) Broadsword boy. Now let's ignore the fact that he cannot tell the difference between "your" and "you're" and look at the line "BTY, what your problem with Page?"

Leaving aside the somewhat maverick approach to grammar let's just focus on the question.

I have mentioned Page it is true. In the post entitled "Removed post 2" I wrote the following paragraph:

"We have Stephenpaul Wagnerhand, the amorphous Australian duo who have so far managed to get I.33 wrong, Silver wrong and are currently working on getting the collected medieval English manuscripts wrong. Did I mention Page?"

I was initially thrown as I didn't think I had expressed any problems with Page. But perhaps I had implied something without realising it. I read it again No, there was still nothing more than a clear implication that Stephenpaulwagnerhand have yet again got it wrong, but nothing related to a problem with Page's system.

The reason that there is nothing related to me having a problem with Page's system is simple.

I don't have a problem with Page's system.

I do have a problem with the interpretation demonstrated by Stephenpaulwagnerhand.

I also have a problem with anyone claiming that what Page shows is "Highland Broadsword" when there is some clear evidence (you will note I use the word evidence, not the word proof, they are not the same thing) that it is not. I am referring of course to the excellent essay by Bethan Jenkins that you can read here.

What fills me with a sense of sadness approaching despair is the fact that the same people who cannot read and understand simple English, are the ones trying to recreate dead arts from the written word. We need more people like Bethan Jenkins if we are to stand a chance.

As to "Baskethit Broadsword Boy", well he should never have progressed beyond comprehension.