[lit-ideas] Diary of Public School Girl
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:28:34 EDT
Thanks, Judy. She quotes my:
>> 'public school boy': Lyceen, gymnast
and comments:
>doesn't make sense, does it? 'grammar school boy' would.
Well, yes. The original OED quote reads:
"The Victorian public-school boy, the Gymnasiast or lycéen."
George_. STEINER_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/help/bib/oed2-s4.html#g-steiner)
In Bluebeard's Castle (1971),
p. 85
I am reminded now that George Steiner was born in Paris, so possibly he is
not very _knowledgeable_ (although he's so pretentious he possibly thinks he
is) about "Victorian public school boy".
For starters, I don't like the 'implication' of Victorian. Literally that
means,
"The 1837-1901 public school boy"
which hardly constitutes a 'natural kind' as philosopher Kripke would call
it.
I'm surprised, but must say I like the 'lyceen' bit, since it _is_ a little
tribute to Aristotle and his Lyceum -- which has SOMETHING to do with a wolf
-- but R. Paul will know the Greek -- whom I hope is not too heavy to lift
as he sleep-writes.
"Gymnasiast" seems to be Steiner's misreference to the German Gymnasium.
The OED gives three matches for 'public school girl', below. The three from
the same source, "Diary of a Public School Girl" (1930), and in entries for
"hefty" ( 1867), "maugre" (1300) and "sarky" (1912).
>when I Googled for a suitable url [for 'public school girl']
>I found some porny-looking sites!
Well, let's not be surprised if this "Diary of a Public School Girl" (1st
edn. 1930, 2nd printing 1931) does _not_ qualify as what Geary call "mild
erotica".
So there.
Cheers,
JL
offlist ps to Geary: Do you still own the copy of _The Diary of a Public
School Girl_. I last saw it in the attic at Seattle. Did you take it to
Memphis. I hope so. It was a nicely illustrated scrapbook with nice
daguerotypes,
too.
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