I think there’s something here about pre-post-formal in various contexts or something. Like, I’ve just added a “related to” link to Abram’s post about third person perspective, because it feels to me like Ben is being formal, just not in relationship to his mother. He’s being formal with respect to this imagined impartial judge who’s looking down on both him and his mother and awarding the victory to whoever’s scored the most points.
I think there’s something here about pre-post-formal in various contexts or something. Like, I’ve just added a “related to” link to Abram’s post about third person perspective, because it feels to me like Ben is being formal, just not in relationship to his mother. He’s being formal with respect to this imagined impartial judge who’s looking down on both him and his mother and awarding the victory to whoever’s scored the most points.