"Short after retiring into a coma"?
I really don't understand the meaning of "retiring into a coma". Somehow it sounds disconnected to me. Here it is in a wider context.Please help :-)
"Short after retiring into a coma, it is hard to imagine how Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett or Christopher Hitchens could have stopped worrying more that they had already stopped worrying so hard to credit atheism for their ebullience."
Thank you
Comments
It appears to me that "after" is an error. It should be "of."
The rest of it does not make much sense.
Short after retiring into a coma, (assuming of) =>
Without being in a coma, I can hardly imagine how =>
It is very far-fetched that
Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett or Christopher Hitchens (names of prominent atheists and freethinkers)
Hmm....
Okay, the writer thinks the 4 should have worried that they had stopped worrying, but had stopped worrying that they had stopped worrying. So they were ebullient (happy, cheerful, energetic)...
No this isn't quite it.
I'm left with the impression that the writer does have something in mind that he tried to commit to paper, but he just could not manage it.
I agree it should read "short of." The rest is awkward to the point of confusion. It's saying they're worrying so little they're almost to the point of a coma, which the author seems to imply is bad...but then it says they're ecstatic? Is that also bad? I'd red ink it "hopelessly confused" and tell the author to re-write.