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Tue 15 Jul, 2014 08:15 am
It sounds like to mean "avoiding to discuss it with my best effort" (am I on the right track?)?
(And if your pet steed is called Dragon, you'd write it as "riding off on my pet steed Dragon"?)
Context:
Chagnon is not a supporter of group selection, and nor am I.
There are formidable objections to it. A partisan in the controversy,
I must beware of riding off on my pet steed Tangent, far from the
main track of this book. Some biologists betray a confusion
between true group selection, as in my hypothetical example of the
god of battles, and something else which they call group selection
but which turns out on closer inspection to be either kin
selection or reciprocal altruism (see Chapter 6).
Full context see Richard Dawkins God Delusion (Page 170)
@oristarA,
The sentence gets its point across. Would I consider it beautiful writing? No. It seems a tad cliche to be considered beautiful. The metaphor used in the sentence is cute in its cheekiness.
It wouldn't have the same meaning if it said riding off on your pet steed dragon.
It's just his way of saying "going off on a tangent", but being amusing by calling his propensity to do so his pet.
Going off on a tangent means straying from the main subject. He is anthropomorphising the word tangent.
It's not so much avoiding the discussion, but more acknowledging that talking about one thing can lead to another.
@chai2,
Thank you both.
Does "partisan" mean "an enthusiastic person" in "A partisan in the controversy"?
@oristarA,
He's saying he is a participant in the controversy.
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