CCCWC September competition voters’ comments on Clue no. 30

CCCWC September competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 30: Major African newt concerned Livingstone

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A clue to SEVEN (Printer’s Devilry).
2 comments refer to this clue (from 2 competitors, 0 others)
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Comments on the clue

1.	Very clever – my favourite of the newt clues

Comments on the competition
1.
The term “Printer’s Devilry” suggests a scenario in which a printer takes malicious pleasure in removing a sequence of letters in a text in such a way as significantly to alter the meaning, to an effect that is amusing, shocking or even insulting to a third party such as the author of the original text. Accordingly, in my view, in a Printer’s Devilry clue: a. the undevilled version should make good sense and should either be in idiomatic English or at least be credible as something read or heard, eg, in a newspaper headline or as part of an overheard conversation; b. the devilled version should also make good sense and, though the English may be rather looser, it should not be too wildly unidiomatic or lacking in credibility; c. the meaning of the devilled version should be as far removed from that of the undevilled as possible, either starkly contradicting it or saying something completely different; d. the difference should, as far as possible, be such as to raise a smile or, had it been achieved by that eponymous printer, to give him the malicious satisfaction that the title suggests; e. it should be the transition from undevilled to devilled that achieves that effect and not the other way round, ie, it should be the devilled version that is amusing or shocking. Clearly, it is far from easy to achieve all that,, and almost all of the clues submitted this month (including my own effort) failed to achieve one or, usually, more of the criteria set out above. In my view, the best of the bunch were 4, 1, 21, 36, 48 and 30.

Comments on the competition

The term “Printer’s Devilry” suggests a scenario in which a printer takes malicious pleasure in removing a sequence of letters in a text in such a way as significantly to alter the meaning, to an effect that is amusing, shocking or even insulting to a third party such as the author of the original text. Accordingly, in my view, in a Printer’s Devilry clue:

a. the undevilled version should make good sense and should either be in idiomatic English or at least be credible as something read or heard, eg, in a newspaper headline or as part of an overheard conversation;

b. the devilled version should also make good sense and, though the English may be rather looser, it should not be too wildly unidiomatic or lacking in credibility;

c. the meaning of the devilled version should be as far removed from that of the undevilled as possible, either starkly contradicting it or saying something completely different;

d. the difference should, as far as possible, be such as to raise a smile or, had it been achieved by that eponymous printer, to give him the malicious satisfaction that the title suggests;

e. it should be the transition from undevilled to devilled that achieves that effect and not the other way round, ie, it should be the devilled version that is amusing or shocking.

Clearly, it is far from easy to achieve all that,, and almost all of the clues submitted this month (including my own effort) failed to achieve one or, usually, more of the criteria set out above. In my view, the best of the bunch were 4, 1, 21, 36, 48 and 30.

CCCWC September competition voters’ comments Clue no. 30: Major African newt concerned Livingstone

CCCWC September competition voters’ comments

Clue no. 30: Major African newt concerned Livingstone