Hi. I need help understanding the following sentence.
"And yet--and yet--is it not perhaps to satisfy expectation that one falls into the tragic key in writing of desertness? The more you wish of it the more you get, and in the mean time lose much of pleasantness."
Can anyone tell me what the "it" in the second sentence is referring to?
Is it referring to the "expectation" in the previous sentence?
And what does "more you get" imply?
The more you expect, the higher the expectation becomes?
And here is the previous paragraph.
"The palpable sense of mystery in the desert air breeds fables, chiefly of lost treasure. Somewhere within its stark borders, if one believes report, is a hill strewn with nuggets; one seamed with virgin silver; an old clayey water-bed where Indians scooped up earth to make cooking pots and shaped them reeking with grains of pure gold. Old miners drifting about the desert edges, weathered into the semblance of the tawny hills, will tell you tales like these convincingly. After a little sojourn in that land you will believe them on their own account. It is a question whether it is not better to be bitten by the little horned snake of the desert that goes sidewise and strikes without coiling, than by the tradition of a lost mine."
Please help.
"more you get" seems to mean that the more you get of something the less its value is
Thanks!
This has already been addressed by Bobpursley:
http://www.jiskha.com/display.cgi?id=1174476402
Yes, the "it" in the second sentence is indeed referring to the "expectation" mentioned in the previous sentence. The author is suggesting that the desire to satisfy or meet the expectation of writing about desertness in a tragic tone may lead one to do so.
When the author says "The more you wish of it the more you get, and in the mean time lose much of pleasantness," they are implying that the more strongly one wishes or desires something (in this case, a tragic portrayal of desertness), the more likely they are to achieve it. However, in the process, they may lose or sacrifice the pleasantness or enjoyment that could have been derived from a different approach.
In the context of the paragraph you provided, the author is discussing the allure and mystery of the desert, which often leads to the creation of myths or legends about hidden treasures. The author suggests that spending time in the desert and hearing these tales from weathered miners may make one believe in the existence of these treasures.
The comparison of being bitten by a little horned snake of the desert versus being bitten by the tradition of a lost mine implies that it may be less harmful or problematic to be deceived by a physical danger (like a snake) than being deceived by a false belief or expectation (like the tradition of a lost mine).