Talk about clever—Mark illustrates this entire post in one sentence! He points out all these readings:
It should have been perfectly obvious to Julie that I was being sarcastic. (sarcastic)
It should have been perfectly obvious to Julie that I was being sarcastic. (sincere)
It should have been perfectly obvious to Julie that I was being sincere. (sarcastic)
It should have been perfectly obvious to Julie that I was being sincere. (sincere)
and the point of the post is that you really can’t tell from the text which way he means it or how he really felt.
Talk about clever—Mark illustrates this entire post in one sentence! He points out all these readings:
It should have been perfectly obvious to Julie that I was being sarcastic. (sarcastic) It should have been perfectly obvious to Julie that I was being sarcastic. (sincere) It should have been perfectly obvious to Julie that I was being sincere. (sarcastic) It should have been perfectly obvious to Julie that I was being sincere. (sincere)
and the point of the post is that you really can’t tell from the text which way he means it or how he really felt.