[lit-ideas] Re: Between the Esophagus and the Duodenum
- From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2014 19:33:08 -0400 (EDT)
We are discussing whether humour (on the whole) is best described as
Griceian or Popperian ("or Wittgensteinian," Omar should add?).
My last post today!
We are discussing Garfield:
Garfield's owner (to Garfield): Where is my fish?
Garfield: By now? Somewhere between the esophagus and the duodenum.
In a message dated 6/5/2014 5:19:39 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
Garfield is definitely more Popperian than Griceian.
Mmm.
It seems Griceian to me in that the implicature of
"Where is my fish?"
is "You have done something nasty with it, and I want an explanation."
Or: "Surely you ate it, even knowing how I loved my fish".
Garfield's answer,
"By now? [Your fish is] Somewhere between [my] esophagus and [my]
duodenum."
Since the cat does not speak, this is just a 'thought'. If it were an
'utterance', the implicature would possibly be, "I ate your fish" ("and that's
why it's somewhere between my esophagus and my duodenum").
Since Garfield's owner KNOWS (or Garfield may assume the owner KNOWS) what
happens when you eat fish (or any other food, for that matter), the answer
is "more informative than is required".
Since Garfield EXPLOITS this, his behaviour is Griceian.
A Popperian reading runs along totally different lines.
Cheers,
Speranza
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