Meaning of ‘as that’

[learning101]

Hi all,
Here’s an extract from the book:
’It was not lack of time so much as that he clearly saw his children as a threat to the two things that meant most to him - making money and the serious pursuit of pleasure’

I don’t understand the meaning of the phrase ‘as that’ in the context. Was it ‘but’ or ‘because’? And how can I use in different context?

 

[GoesStation]

Here’s an extract from the book ….

The definite article means your readers already know which book you're referring to. We don't, because you haven't told us. If you're referring to one book that you haven't mentioned, you have to use the indefinite article "a".

 

[learning101]

Let me rephrase it.
Here are the extracts from the book ‘All the Money in the World’ by John Pearson that I don’t really understand:
1. It was not lack of time so much as that he clearly saw his children as a threat to the two things that meant most to him - making money and the serious pursuit of pleasure.

What does the underlined mean? Is it ‘it was just that’ or ‘it was because’?

Wait. I think I know “ he thought his children so much as a threat to two things he enjoyed most in life”. Am I correct?

2. ...when the trust was established for the benefit of his children and unborn grandchildren, the capital involved was relatively small; and since he was smarting over what he saw as Helmle’s victory, he felt that rich Dr Helmsley should therefore have ....

Can someone kindly explain the meaning of smarting over?

 

[jutfrank]

This is a tricky sentence to parse. The part you've underlined (as that) includes the preposition as linking to the beginning of a that-clause.

not so much A as B

A = time
B = that he clearly saw his children as a threat

 

[learning101]

I am still confused. Can you please explain what it means in the extract and the reason or maybe how it is used. Kindly give me a few examples so I can at least have some idea how I can use in my future structure. what about "smarting out" in the extract 2?

 

[jutfrank]

The man is worried. It's likely that it's related to having children. We can't tell exactly because it's explained in the context that comes before this sentence.

He has two concerns, a primary one and a secondary one:

Primary concern: His children will stop him from doing things he likes.
Secondary concern: He won't have enough time.

Is that clear? What do you want examples of? The comparative structure not so much A as B? It basically means that B is comparatively more significant than A. This is shown in this example by the primary and secondary concerns. The idea is that he's worried about both things, but only the primary concern is what counts.

If you want to know about smarting over, you ought to open a new thread, since the question is completely unrelated to this one.