[lit-ideas] Re: Counter-Suggestion
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2009 17:24:04 EDT
In a message dated 6/8/2009 3:39:59 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
"Were you born in a barn?"
She had a lot of snide, insulting sayings, most of which I've let slip
away.
Should have written them all down. But I remember the one I hated most.
She used it whenever I or any of us would get whiny with self-pity or
petulant with feelings of being put-upon: "Oh, poor Mike, nobody loves
him.
He'll have to go out into the garden and eat worms." I never have seen
the
connection between eating worms and feelings of self-pity
----
It's surprising about the 'born in the barn', for
i. in Scots, 'bairn' is _child_.
This may confuse Ritchie, the new American (just teasing friendly)
Were diss bairn born in barn?
ii. She, of all people, should know if you were or were not
born in a barn (unless you're adoptive?)
-- I'm currently studying the implicatures of 'adoptive' vs. 'adopted'
as power imbalance in Columbia (actually "Colombia").
The worm is an interesting connection.
Oddly, my mother once had worms in her system -- tania saginata.
But when I see mothers say silly things, my brother invented a saying,
"You're talking shit"
I am more polite, so I rephrased that as,
"I can't hear you -- since you are talking shit"
where the 'can't' is uttered in the indicative mode in the Spanish:
'no te escucho'.
When I speak with mum on the phone she sometimes forgets that:
MUM: [Something stupid]
JL: No te escucho -- I can't hear you.
MUM repeats something stupid to my annoyance.
The other day, it worked with my female cousin who was not in the know as
to the 'code'.
She was asking some stupid question.
I said, "No te escucho"
She repeated the stupid question.
I said "No te escucho"
A third party was present, and she said, "It's not that he is not
_hearing_ you; he is _ignoring_ your stupid comments."
Counter-suggestion needs more research.
Walter O. calls it childish, but it's not.
Also, P. A. Stone is confused when he thinks, "I don't know if my son
knows the meaning of 'good' or 'boy' for that matter."
My quote from Grice was meant to elucidate that it's the other way around:
we go from speaker's intentions (MEANING) _to_ word-meaning. So the
'meaning' of "boy" or "good" gets created by more simple intentions.
I wonder if he says 'good boy' also when he goes into a dark room and
turns on the light.
>nobody loves him.
>He'll have to go out into the garden and eat worms."
Hence, "for the love of Mike" -- title of musical comedy with Bobby Howes.
>nobody loves him.
>He'll have to go out into the garden and eat worms."
Maybe the reference is to Nabbucodonosor. It always struck me that he went
mad and went to the garden (of Babylonia) to eat grass.
'the red red robin' is _always_ eating worms.
Oddly, today I was singing a song mentioning 'worms' -- it's the OED
second quote for 'went' meaning 'said' or uttered:
she was a dear little dicky bird
chip chip she went
sweetly she sang to me
till all my money was SPENT
then she went off song
We parted in friendly terms
Eb
She
was
E
one of the
Fm
earliest
BIRDS
Cmaj7
and
Fm
I was
Ab7
one of the
Eb.
worms.
There is a fascinating monologue on worms by R. Frankau in "Banned songs
from the 20s and 30s". (This is the tail [tale] of Winnie the Worm").
Teachers should use more counter-suggestion with their students. And wives
with their hubbies.
Cheers,
JL
Buenos Aires, Argentina
**************Download the AOL Classifieds Toolbar for local deals at your
fingertips.
(http://toolbar.aol.com/aolclassifieds/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown00000004)
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
