Grammar question?

[ferdose]

I'm writing an essay on emergent life forms, and one of my examples is a super-entity evolving from the collective unconscious (unconsciousness?) of people/cyborgs connected together. Here are the two possible sentences:

1)"...and had become aware of the collective unconscious they were apart of."

OR

2) "...and had become aware of the collective unconsciousness they were apart of."


The only problem is unconscious vs unconsciousness... I have no idea which to use, or maybe if they're both actually right. I know there are grammar-specific forums, but I don't know how active they might be this late at night. I wish there was a grammar channel in irc...

[sgosnell]

Since you're writing a fantasy, use whichever you like. You can call it the unconcious, the great I Am, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, or whatever, since it's your fantasy.

Yes, the use of 'apart' in that context is incorrect. 'a part of' is the correct way of stating it.

[H2SO_four]

English professor I am not, but the first one sounds correct.

[lisati]

Just a minor note: I'd recommend "a part of" instead of "apart of".

Here's my rationale: When Mrs Lisati are off doing our own thing, we are apart; when we both belong to a group we are both parts of that group. (one part = a part; separated = apart)

Hope that makes sense without being pushy.....

[aysiu]

It actually depends on what you mean.

the unconscious as a known is a Freudian term:

the unconscious, Psychoanalysis. the part of the mind containing psychic material that is only rarely accessible to awareness but that has a pronounced influence on behavior.

unconsciousness is just the noun form of unconscious, which is basically not being awake:

Lacking awareness and the capacity for sensory perception; not conscious.

[ferdose]

Thank you all very much. I think I'll go with "unconscious", because it seems that it right after all (thank you aysiu and H2SO_four). Also, thanks lisati and sgosnell for catching that other mistake with "apart". I'm not really writing about my fantasy though, it was created by someone else (Masamune Shirow...see "Ghost in the Shell").

[H2SO_four]

Thank you all very much. I think I'll go with "unconscious", because it seems that it right after all (thank you aysiu and H2SO_four). Also, thanks lisati and sgosnell for catching that other mistake with "apart". I'm not really writing about my fantasy though, it was created by someone else (Masamune Shirow...see "Ghost in the Shell").

Funny you should mention Ghost in the Shell, as I was watching it just hours ago! Coincidence?