ShmoopTube

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Open wide! It's time for your daily dose of Shmoop...

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Pause, and behold -- the triumphant return

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of passages one and two...

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In line 18, "folly" most nearly means...what?

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And here are the potential answers...

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Let's take a quick look back at line 18 to see how the mysterious word, "folly," is used.

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OK, it seems like the word needs to have a negative connotation, since this author is

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unabashedly biased against the would-be censors.

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Also, we note the magic conjunction "and" between "folly' and "shortsightedness"...

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...which lets us know that the two have to go together in some way.

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The "fore" in "foresightedness" sounds like the "fore" in "before."

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This reminds us that "foresightedness" refers to when a person can look ahead and

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predict something before it happens.

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It's not a fortuneteller thing, really. Having foresight is all about analyzing what's

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going on around you to predict possible outcomes.

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In any case, we know that "foresightedness" is the opposite of "shortsightedness."

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Since the magic conjunction "and" told us that "jolly" had to jibe with "shortsightedness,"

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we know (A) is incorrect. "Creativity" has a positive connotation,

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so we can eliminate it pretty easily.

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It wouldn't make sense for this particular author to compliment these censor-happy ladies,

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with whom he or she obviously disagrees... especially when in the author's view they

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were trying to censor creativity. "Prudence" reminds us of the word "prude,"

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which describes somebody who's way too concerned with everything being proper and following

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every rule to the letter.

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Though the shortened form of the word has a negative connotation, having "prudence"

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is generally considered a good thing, because it refers to careful planning and solid judgment.

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So, once again, we can eliminate a word because its connotation is just too positive.

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"Fishiness" does have a negative connotation like the one we're looking for. It can either

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refer to something that actually smells like a fish...

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...or to a person who's cold emotionally...

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...or to a person or situation that's suspicious in some way.

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None of these definitions seem to be exactly what the author is shooting for here, so we'll

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go ahead and cross (B) off of the list. "Folly" sounds like the vocabulary love

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child of "jolly" and "fool," which tips us off that "foolishness" is a good fit.

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We've got the negative connotation we want, and it totally jibes with "shortsightedness."

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So we know that the author is basically calling people who try to change pop music "silly."

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Although... maybe not this silly.

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