through the writing and the selected works of others

02:21 Dec 24, 2010 

I basically agree with missdutch. I read it as:

Therefore, bring the following:
1. the word;
2. the music;
3. the light; AND
4. your knowledge through the writing and the selected works of others.

As Sheila has already pointed out, 'the writing and the selected works of others' = the writing of others and the selected works of others.

So, the 4th item can be expanded into: your knowledge through the writing of others AND your knowledge through the selected works of others. The writing and selected works of others constitute the channel from which you attain your knowledge. The selected works of others probably pertain to those that are useful to healing the waters of Gaia.

Just my two cents.

23:09 Dec 23, 2010 

but grammatically-speaking, it ought to mean that all these things (word, music, light and knowledge) should be brought [to heal the waters of Gaia] through the writing and selected works of others. It reads to me as though "writing" and "works" both refer to "others". @Tony - but this is the author (possibly Peter Hamilton???) speaking to natives of Sirius, so we can't be sure it's a non-native text. What I'd like to know is what language the Asker has to translate it into - Siriusian? If so, please do try not to spark a pan-galactic war by mis-translations! :-)

22:31 Dec 23, 2010 

with Dr Spock, a.k.a. Tony M? A very merry Christmas to you!
Oh, and "Your service honors us";-)

22:23 Dec 23, 2010 

I can see why you might think that, but FWIW, my instinctive reading was that the "through" followed on from "...bring the word...", rather than 'knowledge'; this would make some grammatical sense without needing to assume actual missing text, a your interpretation has to.

"Live long and prosper!" — or whatever the Sirian equivalent is!

22:16 Dec 23, 2010 

I'm not native either, however, probably because of that, I understand this sentence such as follows: "... and your knowledge [that you received] through the writing and the selected works of others."

22:04 Dec 23, 2010 

...not entirely surprising, for a non-native speaker from Sirius!

I think it basically means 'through your own writing, and also by disseminating selected books (etc.) by other writers' — what is not very clear is the overall structure of the whole sentence, and in particular, just what is meant by "bring the word... etc." — I am assuming it probably means something like 'spread the word' (hence the idea of dissemination)