I’ll let the article stand for itself, and simply comment that the most troublesome aspect of the story of McGonagall is not his delusions of genius, nor the cruelty of his audiences, but rather his humanity, his fallibility, his very similarity to each of us. I see my own writing in McGonagall’s poor poetry. I see my own longing for a life imbued with culture in his self-styled commitment as “Poet and Tragedian”. I see myself, I see others, too, and I try not to wince.

Perhaps most devastating in the McGonagall biography is the utter futility of his efforts despite an impossible commitment to his art. McGonagall earned neither satisfactory remuneration or praise for his work during his life, nor fame and respect for his aesthetics after his death. And yet he battled (with “psychological armor-plating”) to fulfill this dream and capitalize on what he clearly saw as a supreme talent. Daniel, comparing the memory of McGonagall to the fellow Scot and better poet Hamish Henderson, remarks that “a cruel posterity does not always distribute fame among writers according to literary merit”–suggesting that though we may remember McGonagall as “the worst poet of the English language” at least we remember him.

If I may say so without malice, to be a poet as McGonagall I’d rather be forgotten.

I write like
Vladimir Nabokov

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Re-testing of the system with other short stories confirmed the Nabokov link, and added 2x Jane Austen, 2x James Joyce, and 1x Dan Brown. I’ll just comment that, Dan Brown aside, I’ve read significant amounts of each Nabokov, Austen, and Joyce in the past 2 years that these stories were drafted.

There’s an obvious mate at Qb7, but no “half” moves that I can see. When someone says half a move, I immediately think of the two-part movement of castling, but that’s not happening here.

My instinct aimed at 1. cxb6 e.p. +, but that’s no checkmate (1. … Rxb6).

I wrestled with the idea that the board displays a piece half-way through a move But white’s pawns can not proceed further, and have no where to go if you flip the board 180. Knight has no mating squares except xb5, but where would it come from? c7? That would suggest it’s already in the air.

Speaking of which, it’s one thing to lift a piece to reveal a checkmate, but it wouldn’t be fair to have an unknown piece already hanging in the air…

The last idea I have is that “half a move” refers merely to white’s “half” (or, ply) of a two-part turn, and thus my first move stands.

So what’s the answer? I hate to wait until tomorrow, but hate more not figuring this out on my own.

Update: Chris Lott saw through this almost immediately, recognizing that the white queen could be representing the default choice of a promoted pawn–just prior to choosing the knight which cinches a checkmate. Nice brain on that guy, eh?