Grant, my request to join the Facebook group somehow got stuck for what must've been 20 days now.
I came across this in a new book that looks at first to me like a misprint or a misuse of the phrase 'in the event':
There'd been some quitters, but those who stayed had been serious, and in the event the Fletcher Correctional Shakespeare class was a hit.
But I decided 'in the event' here means 'eventually.' Does any one find this usage strange at all? Always conventional?
For some background, Margaret Atwood, the author, is Canadian all her long life, and this story is all based in Canada.
Robert, I don't see your request. Will you re-request to join? Thanks.
Regarding "in the event" I read that sentence as "in the event for which some had quit and some had stayed" a.o.t. "eventually."
But it's kinda hard to tell with that sentence out of context. Is "the event" referred to elsewhere in the passage?
There’d been some quitters, but those who stayed had been serious, and in the event the Fletcher Correctional Shakespeare class was a hit.
In the event can nearly always be replaced with "just in case." It doesn't mean eventually because in the event means there is a question whether the event will happen or not and eventually implies that it will certainly happen.
This is an awkward sentence but here is how I take it after several readings. The event is "Fletcher Correctional Shakespeare class being a hit." Some had quit but others stayed, partly because they were serious but also hoping that the Fletcher Correctional Shakespeare class would be a hit.
If you rewrite it and break down the reasons for staying it makes a bit more sense. I would rewrite it like this, "There had been some quitters. Those who stayed had been serious, but they also stayed in case the Fletcher Correctional Shakespeare class was a hit."
The complete context may destroy this theory but this is how I read it now.
It's probably fair to say I am not the only one to find this usage pattern not instantly recognizable? A comforting thing for me.
Some more for context- see if it might change your interpretation:
He’d had to assert his authority, draw a few lines in the sand. At one point he’d threatened to walk out. There’d been some quitters, but those who’d stayed had been serious, and in the event the Fletcher Correctional Shakespeare class was a hit. In its own modest way, it was cutting edge; it was also, you could say—and Felix did say it to his students, explaining the term carefully—avant-garde.
To your point, the parts that come after "was a hit" appear to say that "was a hit" was a fact, not a supposition.