Ask Carl

[gillespiep@vms.csd.mu.edu]

This weekend I got a t-shirt (but not a tan) from the Miami J'yce 
conference that just took place.  It's a great black T with white 
lettering.  On the front is the name of the conference and the sigla from 
Finnegans Wake (I'd tell you what that is, but under the new 
communications bill I might get prosecuted).  On the back is a sort of 
conundrum; it says, "Ten years of proudly exposing new Joycean 
knowledge."  Here's my question: this construction strikes me as very 
similar to the split infinitive.  If we can't "boldly go," can we 
"proudly expose?"  Given the amount of sunbathing that takes place at 
this conference, I have to conclude that new Joycean knowledge is not all 
that's exposed.  I should have gone.  

Paula Gillespie
Marquette University