Linguistic confusion

[zero sum mgame]

I'm having some trouble parsing the phrase 'metafinal preread'. Help?

[Kokuten]

"we think this is the final pre-read, but we're not sure"
alternatively,
"This is the final pre-read before the final pre-read"
or,
"This is the final pre-read, _after_ the 'final' pre-read."
please choose wisely. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[Bob Schroeck]

The last. ("Meta-" is literally "beyond" or "after".)
There was a "final" preread back when we thought 3 and 4 would be a single chapter. Then there was a "final" preread on the individual chapters after the split. Now chapter 4 is in a really, honestly, truly final preread after additional scenes and passages were written in response to prereader suggestions.
To give you some idea how final we really are, I'm assembling my side of the concordance entries right now.

-- Bob
---------
Visit beautiful Boston, proud successor to Seattle as
"City Most Scared Of Its Own Shadow

[robkelk]

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The last. ("Meta-" is literally "beyond" or "after".)

---

Ah, but that leaves open the possibility of a supermetafinal ("above and beyond final") preread.
No, I'm not nitpicking; I'm avoiding getting my hopes up. Optimists are rarely "pleasantly surprised", after all...

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Bob Schroeck]

---

Ah, but that leaves open the possibility of a supermetafinal ("above and beyond final") preread.

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Coming up next on NBC: Preread: Above and Beyond. Join the Preread Squad on a daring raid into the heart of Unedited Territory!
-- Bob
---------
Visit beautiful Boston, proud successor to Seattle as
"City Most Scared Of Its Own Shadow

[zero sum mgame]

Duly noted. Thanks.