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"Ultimately, though, I don’t actually think it diminishes the pleasures of reading. The idea of a pure reading experience is a myth, anyway, because purity is a myth..."

diminishes what could have been an interesting article. The writer goes on to use words like 'over-determined', and 'Enlightenment', which leads me to believe that he or she has read far too much Foucault, Derrida, and all the other phonies of post-Modernism.

It never ends.

The existence of copyediting is in part a symptom of an ideological orientation toward Enlightenment rationality and order, and style guides are a kind of institutionalized “narcissism of small differences.” Though I wouldn’t want to begrudge anyone the opportunities for pleasure in this crazy world, I personally derive only moderate pleasure from rationality, order, and discriminating small differences. The greater pleasure I get from copyediting (when I get it) is not in correcting mistakes or being “right” or producing “good” copy. I don't generally see mistakes as such. When I am reading copy, I see the way language gets used both artfully and artlessly in all these creative, accidental, overdetermined, fascinating ways. For me the excitement is in the prism—the refraction—not in the rainbow (so to speak).

Signed,
Uptight Nitpicking Copy Editor

I do try to avoid split infinitives when possible, but I am of the school that they're not technically wrong.
http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/split-infinitives

FinalEyes, I can imagine that typography is another hazardous trade! An interesting comparison, and thank you for it and for your sweet enthusiasm. (PS: Copy-editing is hyphenated in our house style.)

I was born a typographer and became a copyeditor (and proofreader) after the typesetting industry collapsed with the advent of the Mac. My design clients had taught me how to be a good typographer, and I became so persnickety about it that I couldn't read a book unless the type was at least cared for if not crafted. I remember reading an old copy of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," in which the type was so poorly kerned I had to quit the book.

Both copyediting and typography are hazardous trades — ones we would never willingly relinquish. And you gave such perfect voice to the passion.

Thank you.

To wit:

"I went back and forth on this, but concluded that a word is only connected to the word next to it -- hence each other."

s/b "...a word is connected only to..."

Diego, So interesting about the different states of Brazil, and something that we discussed as we edited and during our week of events with the authors. And thanks for telling us a good curse word!

Liz, This is an issue having to do with the lovely and underused subjunctive mood -- thanks for bringing it up! I don't think it's necessary to use it in this context, because 'if' hasn't been used to imply future doubt of something occurring. If I were (!) to use it, it would change the nuance of the sentence.

Xoxota is not a very common word. I've never used it, or maybe once or twice when I was a kid. The most common word for it (20/1) is "buceta". And we never use xoxota to curse. But I guess the real problem faced when translating Brazilian authors is that many words are quite common in one state but sound weird in another (and we have 27 states). So what to do when you translate them?