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Re: Transparent Things Group Reading: Chapter I (fwd)
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Before I quit chewing this brief chapter to tatters, a couple more
things come to mind. The first sentence, as others have pointed
out is a bare direct statement: I would almost have called it a
"presentative" sentence, like French "voila", or Italia "ecco"
pointing to both (Hugh) Person (later "You") and I (apparently Mr
R, who Professor Johnson notes is the mirror or the Russian
symbol for "I". What's more, this sentence leads eventually to
the final sentence, and can be rehearsed without text between,
creating a Finnegans Wake like connection.
The name "Person" is very interesting, and almost leads to to much
possibility for the reader. For this reason, I'll reject the
thought that it could be sliced into a first syllable meaning
"father", namely "per" or "pere" (both exist in this meaning), and
"son" -- which comes around again in the last sentence.
I find enough to chew on considering that the French "personne"
(we must always keep in mind that N is tri-lingual) which means
"nobody": and is for Verne of course the equivalent of Nemo,
and we know that when young N was fond of Verne. (We could even
sneak in Ulysses, who used a Greek word for Nobody, but not with
any comfort.)
But my candidate here (if I have to place my bet on just one square,)
is with the earlier Classical use of "persona" which meant a
theater mask: all actors wore these dramatic masks for which the
Romans had taken the Etruscan word (probably ultimately from Greek).
Thus the "dramatis personae of TT are masked -- perhaps with other
theatrical attributes.
I haven't seen any new posts all day: I hope we have't overwhelmed
our hosts! I shall finish my martini and turn to my usual bedtime
non-literary junk. Good night all, wherever you are!!
John
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Before I quit chewing this brief chapter to tatters, a couple more
things come to mind. The first sentence, as others have pointed
out is a bare direct statement: I would almost have called it a
"presentative" sentence, like French "voila", or Italia "ecco"
pointing to both (Hugh) Person (later "You") and I (apparently Mr
R, who Professor Johnson notes is the mirror or the Russian
symbol for "I". What's more, this sentence leads eventually to
the final sentence, and can be rehearsed without text between,
creating a Finnegans Wake like connection.
The name "Person" is very interesting, and almost leads to to much
possibility for the reader. For this reason, I'll reject the
thought that it could be sliced into a first syllable meaning
"father", namely "per" or "pere" (both exist in this meaning), and
"son" -- which comes around again in the last sentence.
I find enough to chew on considering that the French "personne"
(we must always keep in mind that N is tri-lingual) which means
"nobody": and is for Verne of course the equivalent of Nemo,
and we know that when young N was fond of Verne. (We could even
sneak in Ulysses, who used a Greek word for Nobody, but not with
any comfort.)
But my candidate here (if I have to place my bet on just one square,)
is with the earlier Classical use of "persona" which meant a
theater mask: all actors wore these dramatic masks for which the
Romans had taken the Etruscan word (probably ultimately from Greek).
Thus the "dramatis personae of TT are masked -- perhaps with other
theatrical attributes.
I haven't seen any new posts all day: I hope we have't overwhelmed
our hosts! I shall finish my martini and turn to my usual bedtime
non-literary junk. Good night all, wherever you are!!
John
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L