[Grammar] A situation where the simple present and the simple past tenses are intercchangeable?

[cubezero3]

In her compelling autobiography - serialised exclusively in the Daily Mail from today - Miss Kampusch describes how she was ...

In one chilling episode, Miss Kampusch described how she discovered the full extent of her captivity.

Natascha Kampusch autobiography: Girl snatched by stranger and held for 8 years | Mail Online

The writer of the report used both describes and described in simular situations.

It seems that at least when we are talking about the contents of a book, or even possibly that of an article extracted from a magazine or news paper, it doesn't really matter which of the two is used.

The words are always there. Even after the writer's death, they still tell people the same thing. Also, the event was described when the writer did their actions of putting their words down. Therefore the writer certaily described the event, if we look from this perspective.

As to whether the writer of this article chose to use two different tenses for the same situation? He probably found it boring and dull not to use as many ways to express as he could. That's my best guess.

Am I right in thinking so?

Thanks

Richard

 

[Pedroski]

I would say you are right in what you say. I suggest you look up 'Aktionsart' for more info.

You often read 'in the book he describes....' Since he has a) written the book, and b) tells us in the book about things that happened before he wrote the book, anything described is very clearly in the past. The name 'Present Tense' is not very useful!

 

[cubezero3]

Thanks, Pedroski.

Your conformation is very important to me. I will google Aktionsart and spend some quality on it.

Today really is a good day for me.

Richard