Like idk what he really meant by it because he went back to discussing some book 5 seconds later, but it was really harrowing to just be told “I’m not really sure your generation has it in you.” I will spend the rest of my younger years not believing this is the case but like
One of my professors went on a very brief aside in class one day and said “I know you guys all want to change the world, but the pattern is, it’s going to be your kids’ generation that are the rebels, the real activists.” Hey Man what the Fuck am I Supposed to do Then .
All words written in perspective prompt our own emphatic interpretations. “Really” and “cold, dead” don’t come across with a similar tone. The exact reason you don’t want italics so close together is that they force a reader to slow down. It’s a stunted voice.
“never italicise words to show emphasis! if you’re writing well your reader will know. you don’t need them!”
me: oh 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺? listen up buddy, you will have to pry my emotional support italics from my 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥, 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥, 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴, they are going 𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦
If I was given the same passage and forced to italicize, i’d’ve italicized “buddy” and the “no” in nowhere. It’s just how my brain reads the cadence of the sentence.
I just think it risks making the interpretive measure of language feel like a prison of false objectivity.