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I am currently reading the Novel "Radium Girls" and encountered the following sentence in it.

It was important to the company that the production process be as efficient as possible, because the demand for luminous products showed no signs of slowing, even now the war was over.

I have a problem with the last phrase, "even now the war was over". Is it correct or should it be "even though the war was over". If it is correct can you point out other similar usages.

jimm101
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    'Now' refers to the time at which the story is set. It is meant to make you, the reader, see the situation from the characters' point of view. – Kate Bunting Oct 14 '19 at 16:01
  • "Now", at the time the person is speaking, as opposed to, say six months ago when the war was raging. "We must reduce carbon emissions, now we know the harm they do." Previously we didn't know, but "now" that we do, we must do something. – WS2 Oct 14 '19 at 16:42
  • It's poorly written. At a minimum it should say ".. even now when the war is over". Or a dozen other options. – Hot Licks Oct 14 '19 at 16:53
  • It could be even now that* the war was over, but that word has been omitted. While it's a bit unusual, it's still a matter of style; there is nothing actually ungrammatical about omitting that* from this sentence. – Jason Bassford Oct 14 '19 at 18:42
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    @HotLicks What? Why should it use present tense "is" there? – Araucaria - Him Oct 14 '19 at 19:00
  • The Lexico entry is very helpful (as Weather Vane pointed out). Please visit the Help Center; as stated there, ELU expects reasonable research, correctly linked and attributed, to accompany questions. Three users apparently considered basic research in an 'answer' against the spirit of the site (so I didn't downvote myself this time). – Edwin Ashworth Oct 14 '19 at 19:01
  • @Araucaria The availability of both 'even now that the war is over' (historic present; 'now' now) and 'even now that the war was over' (now = at the time being considered) does make things more complex. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 14 '19 at 19:05
  • @EdwinAshworth That kind of downvoting ceased during your interregnum. We can't say what the downvotes were for ... – Araucaria - Him Oct 14 '19 at 19:07
  • Can you (a) direct me to where such practice is proscribed and (b) explain how you can say that such downvoting ceased? – Edwin Ashworth Oct 14 '19 at 19:10
  • @EdwinAshworth Well, it would be if we could invoke the historic present in a subordinate clause governed by a temporally corefetential past tense main clause verb. But we can't! – Araucaria - Him Oct 14 '19 at 19:10
  • @Araucaria The availability of 'It is 1874. Now the war is over.' and 'It was 1874. Now the war was over.' makes things more complex. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 14 '19 at 19:14
  • @EdwinAshworth But that's not the kind of case we see here, though. – Araucaria - Him Oct 14 '19 at 19:16
  • @KateBunting Yes. All the same, it is interesting that as far as I know, no one had used ‘then’ in equivalent passages, which would be the strict sequence of tense. But ‘then (when) the war was over’ sounds very strange. – Tuffy Oct 14 '19 at 23:06
  • @Araucaria No, but perhaps it's worth pointing out in a comment on a site looking at the intricacies of the language. // ' That kind of downvoting ceased during your interregnum....' Can you (a) direct me to where such practice is proscribed and (b) explain how you can say that such downvoting ceased? The downvotes here (3 until someone apparently upvoted) can hardly be for the content of a correct answer. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 15 '19 at 13:38

1 Answers1

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This usage of 'now' is supported by Lexico:

now
ADVERB

1.5 (in a narrative or account of past events) at the time spoken of or referred to.

she was nineteen now, and she was alone

The phrasing in the sentence is not

even now / the war was over

but

even / now the war was over

Weather Vane
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