Norriswatch!

"The Justice Riders realized that whatever they would do or become they would not tolerate evil, oppression, or injustice." (via Bookslut)

The book description is anaphorically unbuckled: "From the gold and silver mines of California and Nevada to the wide open plains of Texas, the American West was a wild frontier in the 1870s where dangerous outlaws pursued devilish dreams of fortune. But there were other men of simple faith, unsung Civil War heroes who adventured west to bring justice to places that had none. Those they called "The Justice Riders."

So they called the places 'the Justice Riders'?

Comments

[Jeremy Osner]

I don't quite get your objection. "Those" clearly refers to "other men". Sure, the prose is purple. But I don't think there's any confusion with pronoun referents. Look: the second sentence begins "But there were other men..." and the third begins "Those they called..." I think you'd have to really strain to read "those" as referring to the noun near the end of the second sentence which is not the main subject of the second sentence. Just my $.02.

[jholbo]

You're right that no actual confusion is going to result, Jeremy. It's just that 'those' should technically refer back to the closest prior plural noun, which is places. Also, 'they' should refer back to some mentioned persons. (Obviously, 'they say ...' is standard English for 'it sort of gets said'. But it seems odd to encounter it in this specific context.) Basically, it's just clunky. More importantly: Chuck Norris wrote a novel!