Meaning of a statement from The Economist [closed]
This is a sentence from The Economist:
IT IS growing harder to distinguish one bloody day in Syria from the next, unless the horror is so stark as to earn a special mark in the trajectory of an increasingly gruesome conflict.
Please help me in understanding this statement. I am unable to get the accurate meaning. Also help me understand the statement after "Unless".
The notion here is that because so many days in Syria are gruesome, it is hard to remember the days distinctly.
“The horror is so stark as to earn a special mark” means the action stands out especially sharply and clearly.
“In the trajectory of an increasingly gruesome conflict” refers to the history, or path, of conflict that grows ever more violent and bloody.
Almost every day in Syria is equally bloody, except when a day is excepcionally bloody.
The reason you are "unable to get the accurate meaning" is that there is no "accurate" meaning—just a fuzzy blob of meanings from which an experienced reader like jwpat7 extracts what the author intended by disregarding much of what the author actually said.
There are three distinct ideas in the sentence:
- Any day in Syria is like every other day.
- Some days in Syria are notably worse than the others.
- The conflict in Syria is becoming worse.
Proposition 1 is contradicted by propositions 2 and 3; and confusion is exacerbated by:
- "Elegant variation" (the term is Fowler's): bloody, stark horror and gruesome lead you to look for subtle distinctions which are not intended—all are characterizations of the same violence.
- Inappropriate idiom: the author confuses mark in the sense of "a physical sign of distinction" with mark in the sense of "a grade awarded in a class"—it is the latter which is earned.
- Confusing metaphor: How does one either "earn a mark in" or attach a "mark" to a trajectory?
A little attention to coordinating his thoughts might have led the author to say something like this:
In Syria's increasingly gruesome conflict, one bloody day follows another, each bloodier than the one before, none distinct except when everyday bloodiness rises to stark horror.