Proscribe v. Prescribe

January 12, 2024

In the third scene of “The Gorge,” “Lonely Among the Clouds,” I made the embarrassing mistake of confusing “proscribed” with “prescribed.”

Both words are, in fact, opposites. Proscribe means to prohibit, while prescribe means to authorize. In the context of the scene I originally wrote (emphasis added on the relevant part):

“The needs of the Polity override those of the individual. Even before the conquests, the Council ruled successfully since the founding of Heaven’s Sanctuary. It is their continued success, proscribed in the Heaven’s Mandate, that legitimizes their perpetual reign.”

The original paragraph doesn’t make sense. If the continued success of the Council is proscribed (i.e. prohibited), then being successful wouldn’t legitimize their reign. And, also, why would an organization’s ethos prohibit its own success…

I have now corrected this typo:

“It is their continued success, prescribed in the Heaven’s Mandate, that legitimizes their perpetual reign.”

Despite using and paying for Grammarly to proofread my work, it doesn’t catch everything. One of its evolving limits is understanding the intent/context behind a statement. With better AI in the future, this hopefully will improve. That being said, I cannot ever expect it to replace the quality of a human proofreader. However, it is cheaper and more efficient.