you can't choose your parents/ part 2

you can't choose your parents/part 2

fiction
edward w pritchard


Judge- Why are you here

John Ruskin - I am here to testify on Pritchard's behalf

Judge- aren't you John Ruskin British art critic long dead who wrote "the stones of Venice"

Ruskin-yes, but I also wrote criticism about what constitutes good writing

Judge- well Pritchard has been accused of in addition to plain bad writing of misusing the pathetic fallacy in "you can't choose your parents" [part1] by having a Mother in a short story find some potato sacks near a railroad tracks and sew them into a suit for a high school graduation for her son
who must either work in the coal mines the rest of his life or get killed in the military

Ruskin-not  guilty of the violation of the pathetic fallacy for I specifically state throughout my criticism to violate the pathetic fallacy with exaggeration or lack of a suitable noble purpose can be done only in poetry not plain writing, good or bad such as short stories, novels etc.

Judge-thanks you Mr.Ruskin, but please do tell us about yourself and rose la touche

Ruskin-no I don't talk about that but if you like scandal read about myself and James Whistler