God And Guru

Oscar Wilde claimed that he once spent a morning adding a comma to a passage that he had already written, then idled away the afternoon removing it.

Writers differ in their use of commas. To list the members of the Christian Trinity, I would write, "Father, Son and Holy Ghost," whereas Poul Anderson would write, "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." When quoting an author, we must ensure that we reproduce his use of commas, not our own usual use.

Usually we do not notice how commas are used and need to check when quoting a passage. Usually it does not matter. However, in The Peshawar Lancers (New York, 2003), SM Stirling writes:

"He saw two more men - the sahib, thanks be to God, and the Guru! - speed through the door." (p. 286)

I took this to mean that two men sped through the door:

the sahib (thank God!);
the Guru -

- and I wondered who the Guru was. It could not possibly be Count Ignatieff although the Count had recently been referred to as a Guru in the text. Then I remembered that the subject, "He...," was a Sikh. Thus, he meant that one of the two men was the sahib, thanks be to God and to Guru Nanak! The second of the two men is the subject of the following sentence:

"One, a Jew by his dress and looks..." (pp. 286-287)

Then the two men, sahib and Jew, are joint subjects of the next sentence after that:

"Then the two of them slammed the iron door shut..." (p. 287)

Thus, unusually in this case, the placing of one comma did for at least one reader obscure the meaning on a first reading.