Another pop star targets Miley Cyrus with an ‘open letter’ attacking her poor grammar skills

Miley Cyrus’s “open letter” feud with fellow singer Sinead O’Connor made international news earlier this month. But a lesser-known letter to the twerk-happy singer from another entertainer is probably much more important.

Breaking away from other musicians who’ve taken issue with Cyrus’s uncouth stage antics, singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens decided to train his sights on her questionable grammar.

Posting from his website, Stevens writes:

Dear Miley. I can’t stop listening to #GetItRight (great song, great message, great body), but maybe you need a quick grammar lesson. One particular line causes concern: “I been laying in this bed all night long.” Miley, technically speaking, you’ve been LYING, not LAYING, an irregular verb form that should only be used when there’s an object, i.e. “I been laying my tired booty on this bed all night long.” Whatever. I’m not the best lyricist, but you know what I mean. #Get It Right The Next Time. But don’t worry, even Faulkner messed it up. We all make mistakes, and surely this isn’t your worst misdemeanor. But also, Miley, did you know the tense here is also totally wrong. Surely you’ve heard of Present Perfect Continuous Tense (I HAVE BEEN LYING in this bed all night long [hopefully getting some beauty sleep?]). It’s a weird, equivocal, almost purgatorial tense, not quite present, not quite past, not quite here, not quite there. Somewhere in between. I feel that way all the time. It kind of sucks. But I have a feeling your “present perfect continuous” involves a lot more excitement than mine. Anyway, doesn’t that also sum up your career right now? Present. Perfect. Continuous. And Tense. Intense? Girl, you work it like Mike Tyson. Miley, I love you because you’re the Queen, grammatically and anatomically speaking. And you’re the hottest cake in the pan. Don’t ever grow old. Live brightly before your fire fades into total darkness. XXOO Sufjan

Adding a slightly deflating twist to this story, VICE unleashed one of their copy editors onto Stevens’ screed and found a few grammatical failings as well. Maybe the moral here is not to assign pop stars the job of advancing the English language.

H/t Gawker

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