A title will come
Apologies for posting this unformed and mis-typed. Some corrections and modification made today, Sunday, 18 June, 2006. Although writers of all kinds reflect the cutlures they live in, pointing out the behaviour and attitudes exhibited by individuals and groups, a short break away in Andalucia has pointed me in an anthropological sense to the commonness of the common folk. It is the tendancy to express comments about one sotto voce, which most intrigues me: both the Spaniards and those compatriots living in Spain ( who my friend said 'could hardly speak English', which I conjoined with "Living in a country whose language they do not understand or wish to learn, whose food they do not which to eat, or whose culture they do which to learn") seemed to have the habit of airing thoughts about complete strangers they were approaching or passing as loud as they were able.
I tried hard to find a succinct and easily memorised phrase which could be used in reply to this what I consider to be objectification - the wonderful Collins English- Spanish dictionary had a few gems - but never got a chance to remove the scap of paper (epoched?) they were written on to throw back a retort.
My friend seemed to have a deaf ear for all this, while I soak it all up: grist for the mill. Waling in the summeriest of summer evenings, very late, starting out at 9.30, to do the traditional evening paseo, we came to the Plaza which abuts the sea. Groups of self-satisfied Eastenders were sitting en family in an outdoor cafe. As we we approached, one said, in the traditional full-volume, "They don't know where they're going", as in 'poor sods + not like us hard-nut expats who know our way about'. My friend had lived nearby for nearly nine years and I had visited the place three times. I felt a lesson was due, so sauntered up the the table, stood stock still and fixed my beadly eye on the fat and bald object from whom I thought the remark had come: up very close to the back of the chair of the person opposite him, from a very still (and I hope calm looking) body which would give any intention of what I proposed to do. After what seemed like an age, but was probably only 5-10 seconds, when everyone at the table looked up at me in silence, I then uttered low oath about his birth and whether his genital arrangments were indeed male, then moved on.
The combination of the remark from them and my response has been recorded here, to my detriment or otherwise, but I feel sure (with the actual words in full expletive glory: ommitted here not to offend the susceptible) it will come into the lastest,lagging, effort loosely based on some aspects of my friend and I in a new found association after a gap of nearly forty years.
The lesser Spaniards do the sotto voce thing because they don't have the imagination to grasp we understand what they are saying. As you pass, a group of three women chatting amiably on a corner might remark, equally sotto voce, that you had a certain type of scent on. My friend would not notice, looking and listening for other things. while I would be flexing unvoiced scenarios involving retorts in deep voiced, oratund Castillian that I am indeed wearing the scent described and do the ladies like it? It is from my farm in England. My friend, with the look, bearing and language proficiency to pull off such a noble interlocution, has neither the desire to do such a thing or the imagination to pull it off. Well, on a rare occasion perhaps.
The world would be such a dull place if we did not 'extend the phenotypes' of our lives by such wishes and imaginings. Or indeed to sometimes pull off a corker now and then. But then this would not be the 'objectification' insult from the safety of the in-group, but a genuine theatre.
celerius quam asparagi cocuntur
According to Wiki: List of Latin phrases (C): more or as quickly than asparagus is cooked. It seemed just the right heading for what I was going to write. Though I am am now, two days later, adding more to the brief post which rather puts the kaibosh on the title.
I had intended to leave it without translation, relying on you, my reader, to Google it if you didn't have the Latin. As you will no doubt be well aware, I haven't the Latin either. Don't feel inadequate, I don't.
When I tested the search for a translation today, it actually sent me to (P) where I, we, learn via the good services of Windows XP's FIND, there is another variant: velocius quam asparagi coquantur. I'll leave it to you to check out the distinction and to read up on the histico-literary interest. That's the beauty of hypertext: It allows the writer to be more concise. The downside is whether the reader will return from the divertismente!::
Another obit.The question? How do you devise a test to show whether someone is a writer or just simulating? I argue along these lines, and that I am a writer (oh, what you write buddy? Most people who are not writers themselves are reluctant to accept that you might be: they assume your are playing the part of one, rather in the same sceptical vein adopted with someone who claims to be very rich.
I picked up an old newspaper from behind me to find an obituary of a certain Peggy Appiah: 'daughter of Stafford Cripps who married an African and settled in Ghana'. The Daily Telegraph: Friday February 24, 2006.But, you ask, where is the writery bit? The photograph of Peggy with her husband Joe: she is sitting with her right hand on her crossed legs, a slightly awkward in the ergodynamics. Her left hand is placed on her inner elbow with the forefinger fully extended. Joe's hand is holding this forefinger with his right hand, his hand hidden under hers, the thumbnail of his finger facing the photographer. His left arm is around Peggy's neck in an almost rugby tackle hold the hand losely curled into a fist over her left breast. They are both smiling.If you are a writer (or a painter, or a photographer) you will have noticed the black thumb before anything else: beautifully holding the long white finger. You will have been satisfied you could incorporate this into something you have already started, or started thinking about a new, short story of love and maybe power.::
Oh, alright then here it is :
Suetonius: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars (Latin and English)
A bene placito
If there is anyone out there, in the read me sense, there will be some wry amusement at the Latin titles. Without feedback - though I don't lack confidence in judging whether the amused whimsy comes over - it is difficult to be sure. I do not take myself seriously but how can you be sure this comes over in writing? Practice everyday straight after breakfast and get it right. You will know.
I am no linguist (don't go there..) but etymology is a constant joy and fascination as is some of the more easily understandable aspects of lingustics. When I read about the Italian study of two brain damaged patients , one of whom had no vowels or was it consonents as i struggled to understand my son's dyslexia, something seemed to connect about how languages evolved and work.
Languages have become increasingly fascinating to me - someone who was completely swamped at school by the necessity to learn shopping lists of rules. Join in the game:
Wikipedia: List of Latin PhrasesThroughout the years as I have slowly recovered from the shock of the way I was expected to learn Latin and French at school - the panic and fear of the finger-point and the request for a declension in a tense I didn't even understand the meaning of: pluperfect? - it has been Latin which holds so much fascination for me. Part of the reason for this is its compactness; the importance of Latin to English goes without me repeating the details.
I was opining yesterday to just acquired new friend on how other nations children are so motivated to learn compared to ours. It seems more and more the large numbers who go through our schools and universities could be more gainfully employed. Go away and learn a couple of languages Ryan, Dean, Tracy, Melanie. I concluded - if we as a nation want to compete, let alone understand the world increasingly passing us by becaise it gets on with the business of earning and living better than us - one of the first things we need to do is make sure as many of our population as is possible are proficient in speaking at least two languages:language is after all in the same technical category as science, technology, computer science, and finacial which are the mainstay of our mainly service economy.
You are restricted in your access to information and knowledge on which your propects are determined if you are relying on your native language. Though all languages are taught through a socio-litarary filter, which is quite natural, it is noentheless a technical skill, a tool to a greater objective. Most children remain interested in learning to speak other languages when other subjects are becoming a drag. This natural inclination ought to be taken advantage of. Where are the language academies?
