"If you don't understand the difference between "I found much of the dialogue to be as witty. . ." and "you found THE dialgue as witty. . . " Well, I just can't help you to understand why that is exaggerating and twisting."
Yes, of course, that is quite a distinction. My apologies for not remembering your exact phrasing, and for incorrectly expressing your thoughts. Just for clarification, though, perhaps you could give a round figure of how much you mean by "much of." 60%? 80%? I must confess that I have trouble understanding how one could find even 1% of this dialogue as witty as Coward's, much less "much of." For that I apologize as well.
And I guess I was led astray as to the exact nature of your assessment of Beane and his play by another statement you made in the earlier thread, and which I should have cited in this one, to wit,
"It was just like modern Oscar Wilde or Noel Coward. And I thought it worked just about as well as they do -- perhaps more so."
I took this to mean that you thought Beane's play worked as well, or even better than Wilde's or Coward's.
But I'm glad you cleared things up for me. Thanks.
And in the spirit of friendship, I wish you more plays like "Mr. and Mrs. Fitch." And in the spirit of my own survival, I wish that somehow I miss them.
Incidentally, did you read Cindy Adams's review of the play? If so,I was curious as to what you thought of it.I don't think even one word of her columns is as witty as Coward or Wilde, but I do think she's as funny as all get-out.
"Much" is in the dictionary. The definition there that I'd use is "more than is expected: more than enough." Others might consider "much" to simply mean "more than half". Does that help you to understand the difference between saying that much of it was funny and the whole play is funnier?
And apparently you still don't understand the difference between talking about a "performance" and how it works for the audience, as opposed to comparing two written scripts. I've tried over and over to explain that the audience I joined for Mr. and Mrs. Fitch laughed and seemed to enjoy that production a lot more than the audience I joined for the current production of Present Laughter. That was the ONLY point I was trying to make about the comparison, but sadly such comparisons seem to be way over your head and you want to make them something other than what I thought I was making clear. Trying to insist I say that Beane is a better writer than Coward is just pure insanity and misunderstanding on your part. Or even suggesting that the two audiences I joined were typical of all audiences is totally out of my control. Perhaps you might want to take a course in reading comprehension if you want to get involved in these discussions?
But rather than my taking a course in reading comprehension, you should take a course in writing. If the sentences I quoted don't accurately reflect what you meant to say, than perhaps you shouldn't write at all.
That's it. I make clear what I say and even re-explain it and you still don't understand, so blame the writer. I thought we were having a fairly intelligent discussion till now. Guess not!
Do you honesty mean you can't understand those explanations in my last post? How sad for you.
I've wholly understood your explanations and re-explanations, and thank you for making your exact point of view known.
The problem is they are not in sync with the statements you made that I cited. Again, if those statements didn't accurately reflect your exact point of view, I feel it would have been better not to have made them.
In any event, you liked the play and I didn't. We've both made our thoughts perfectly clear. I hope that the rancor we've expressed in our exchanges can now be put behind us, and that we can have cordial and intelligent exchanges in the future.
Wife and I saw it Saturday night with my brother from Ohio who had never seen a Broadway play (off or on). All thought is was funny, with John Lithgow doing a good job with the material.... Next time we'll bring him to Wicked though.....