In effetti la botanica sostenne sempre che ll'erba cattiva non muore mai
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 07 May 2015 20:31
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] A guy called Guy
In a message dated 5/7/2015 11:20:11 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
pastone@xxxxxxxxx writes in Re: Paul Grice:
Thanks for the laugh!
On May 7, 2015 10:01 AM, "Omar Kusturica" <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I just found out about this guy, has anyone else heard about him ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Grice
---
Indeed. "To hear about" needs some botanising.
Paul Grice seldom used his Christian (hey, what can be more Christian than
"Paul") name. It was anathema in Oxford to use Christian (hey, what can be more
Christian than "Paul") like that.
He thought it unfortunate that his mother gave him "Herbert" as his first name
("Paul" is officially Grice's middle or second name). This was because Grice's
mother was following her husband's advice, and Grice's father was Herbert Grice.
In any case, it was anathema in Oxford to use Christian names -- initials were
favoured: J. L. Austin, P. F. Strawson, G. J. Warnock, S. N. Hampshire, H. P.
Grice. A few went with trios. My favourite has to be C. A. B.
Peacocke, and then there's P. M. S. Hacker.
When Grice settled on the Berkeley hills, people started to call him "Paul"
(or "Grice" -- hardly "Herbert"). But if you look at the (c) notice for his
Way of the Words (or WoW) for short, you see the full name in full
resplandescence: Herbert Paul Grice.
To hear about this 'guy' is different from having 'read' this guy. But then,
people do say things like "Have you heard about this guy Mozart?". They don't
mean, have you heard Mozart. Because you can hear Mozart's symphonies, since
his voice was not recorded.
In Grice's case, his voice was recorded so
i. You can hear Grice.
ii. You can hear about this guy Grice.
In France, "Guy" was such a common first name, that most of William (The
Conqueror)'s friends were called "Guy". In less than a decade, the name had
come to mean (figuratively), male person.
There was a famous statue of Guy Fawkes, that it was made in 1806, in such a
poor taste, that in some circles, 'guy' came to be used metaphorically to
refer to a "grotesquely or poorly dressed person," some twenty years
afterwards, in 30 years later.
This guy was the leader of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up British king and
Parliament (in Nov. 5, 1605 -- cfr. Grice, "Be as specific as you want").
The effigies of this guy were paraded through the streets by children on the
anniversary of the conspiracy.
Some of these children went to Rome and "Guido" became popular.
Cheers,
Speranza
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