So in this Garfield strip I found a sentence that's giving me a hard time fully understanding it. Although the meaning seems to be quite clear from the context, I'm not getting the phrases / expressions used.
In a response to a question whether he'd like to know where eggs come from, Garfield replies "I would as soon that remain a mystery". I'm especially not getting the "as soon" part: I can imagine the response being e.g. "I would prefer that remain a mystery" (or 'remained' ?).
What am I missing here?
Best Answer
I see nothing whatsoever wrong or difficult about the original sentence:
and I agree completely with OP's rewording as:
I would as soon that remain a mystery.
as soon as (suggested in one comment) is wrong, and is a time-related phrase:
On the other hand, as soon ... as ... conveys a preference:
In the cited sentence, Garfield is using the first part of as soon ... as ... with the second part being omitted, thus expressing a preference (compared with an unspecified alternative), as in this definition:
In this sense, the following expressions are all equivalent:
I would as soon that remain a mystery.
As stated in another comment, the first that is omitted, as in:
I would as soon that remain a mystery.
A further comment suggested that remains should have been used instead of remain, but the subjunctive form remain is correct.
So, when Garfield said:
he meant
But he is known for his brevity - and it would have been more difficult to fit a longer form in the speech bubble!