Hiassen: randomly

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Marius Hancu - 31 Jan 2010 01:51 GMT

Hello:

Do you think
"randomly"
is the right adverb here?

I am considering a different adverb and a different order:
"had been observed _by chance_ by someone equally degenerate."

----
[Someone seems to have seen him in the act and the question is, What
kind of person that observer was?]

Given the pestilential abundance of lowlifes in South Florida, it was
surely possible that Perrone's crime had been randomly observed by
someone equally degenerate.

Carl Hiaasen, Skinny Dip, p. 207
----
--
Thanks.
Marius Hancu

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tony cooper - 31 Jan 2010 02:00 GMT

>Hello:
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>I am considering a different adverb and a different order:
>"had been observed _by chance_ by someone equally degenerate."

That would work. The observation was unplanned. It just happened.

>----
>[Someone seems to have seen him in the act and the question is, What
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>Carl Hiaasen, Skinny Dip, p. 207
>----

Signature

Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

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Jerry Friedman - 01 Feb 2010 02:54 GMT

> Hello:
>
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> I am considering a different adverb and a different order:
> "had been observed _by chance_ by someone equally degenerate."

Hiaasen probably didn't want the repetition of "by". I agree in
finding "randomly" a little odd, since in my experience it usually
means "in a random manner", not "because of a random event", but if I
were reading the book I probably wouldn't notice.

> ----
> [Someone seems to have seen him in the act and the question is, What
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> Carl Hiaasen, Skinny Dip, p. 207

--
Jerry Friedman

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Marius Hancu - 01 Feb 2010 13:28 GMT

> > Do you think
> > "randomly"
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> finding "randomly" a little odd, since in my experience it usually
> means "in a random manner", not "because of a random event",

That was my point too.

> but if I
> were reading the book I probably wouldn't notice.
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> > surely possible that Perrone's crime had been randomly observed by
> > someone equally degenerate.

Thank you both.
Marius Hancu

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Glenn Knickerbocker - 01 Feb 2010 20:54 GMT

> I am considering a different adverb and a different order:
> "had been observed _by chance_ by someone equally degenerate."

I don't see anything exceptional about using "randomly" to mean "in a
random occurrence." I'd say your substitution softens the meaning
considerably. "Random" carries the connotation that it's capricious and
unexpected. "By chance" suggests instead that it's unlikely but in the
expected order of things. A mysterious blue hammer falls from the sky
at random. The name of an acquaintance is overheard by chance.

¬R

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2010

Hiassen: randomly