I think calling this a strategic meaning is not that helpful. I would say the issue is that “isolated” is underspecified. It’s not like there was a fully fleshed out account that was then backtracked on, it’s more like: what was the isolation? were they isolated from literally everyone who wasn’t Kat, Emerson or Drew, or were they isolated /pushed to isolate more than is healthy from people they didn’t need to have their ‘career face’ on for? We now know the latter was meant, but either was plausible.
It’s unhelpful when it comes to just explaining the meaning of “isolation” as that is better communicated by something like Ozy’s description, or in various other ways.
However, I think at least in theory it can be helpful for understanding where to focus one’s attention in the case of community drama like this, including for other questions than just the “isolation” one. Maybe not in practice because I haven’t gone in depth for explaining what I mean by “strategic” though.
Because she specifically said she was isolated from them. She wasn’t. And now we’re supposed to believe that she really meant a form of isolation where those don’t count, even though she explicitly said they count.
I think calling this a strategic meaning is not that helpful. I would say the issue is that “isolated” is underspecified. It’s not like there was a fully fleshed out account that was then backtracked on, it’s more like: what was the isolation? were they isolated from literally everyone who wasn’t Kat, Emerson or Drew, or were they isolated /pushed to isolate more than is healthy from people they didn’t need to have their ‘career face’ on for? We now know the latter was meant, but either was plausible.
It’s unhelpful when it comes to just explaining the meaning of “isolation” as that is better communicated by something like Ozy’s description, or in various other ways.
However, I think at least in theory it can be helpful for understanding where to focus one’s attention in the case of community drama like this, including for other questions than just the “isolation” one. Maybe not in practice because I haven’t gone in depth for explaining what I mean by “strategic” though.
I gave a quote from Ben’s post above.
She specified families, romantic partners, and locals.
Maybe this doesn’t count as fully fleshed, but the new interpretation certainly backtracks on these.
How does it backtrack?
Because she specifically said she was isolated from them. She wasn’t. And now we’re supposed to believe that she really meant a form of isolation where those don’t count, even though she explicitly said they count.