That that and other problems

[Paul Mackin]

>From Stan S:

> [that] Is this just a TRP-personal tic?  It seems to increase in
> frequency with proximity to Slothrop.  Sometimes it's used when "this"
> would seem more appropriate.  Are we supposed tho hear, irony through
> inversion, echoes of _tat tvam asi_?  Or is it an image of an actual
> dialect usage like "like" (or, like that "like"), vestige of an other
> era or locale?

Seems to give  the person or object being described a decided
strangeness. Makes the situation being confronted slightly menacing.
Suggests a separation from ones surroundings bordering on the schzoid.

Very effective, IMHO.

					P.