This post mentioned the ambiguous implicatures of "I believed in Father
Christmas" but does not mention the more compelling evidence that the song
doubts that Santa is real: "they told me a fairy story" and "I saw him and
through his disguise". What lies beneath Santa's "disguise"? Not a real Santa
is one answer.
By the end, where we get the Christmas we deserve, we are being given another
possibility - that the fairy story may be true or come true if we believe it.
In this way, Santa may be real or become real because of his role in an
important fairy story which can create a reality if we believe it or act like
we believe it. But the song is unclear on the different senses in which we may
believe or disbelieve in Father Christmas, the different senses in which Father
Christmas may or may not be real, and the relation between them - Greg Lake is
not an analytical philosopher. Broadly there are two 'resolved' readings of the
song - first, though Santa is a fiction of sorts he is a useful fiction and
represents a truth or reality that goes beyond the world of straightforward
facts; alternatively, we need to see through the disguise or fiction of Father
Christmas to get to the important truth or reality he might represent (say, as
to having more of a heaven rather than hell on earth).
A third reading is that the song depends on being unresolved as between these
two broad readings and you can therefore interpret it as a song professing
continued if modified adult belief in Father Christmas or disavowing such
belief: in this way, the song is "systematically ambiguous". I tend to think,
whatever the intention behind it, the song does not give adequate material for
a 'resolved' interpretation and so is systematically ambiguous as to whether
Santa is real or is believed (in whatever sense, which sense is also not
clearly resolved).
These indicate reasons why I struggle with its intended sense but which make it
a very striking and perhaps unique Christmas song.
DL
From: "dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, 10 December 2016, 23:10
Subject: [lit-ideas] Santa Claus: The Implicatures
McEvoy was referring to alyric by Sinfield (set to music by Palmer), which he
(McEvoy, not Sinfield orPalmer) finds:
"very unusual in that it seems to imply that Santa [Claus] doesn't reallyexist.
I'd been listening several times to it [recently] and am still unsureI've quite
grasped its intended meaning."
Let's consider the thing as a Griceian utterance:
i. They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on Earth
But instead it just kept on raining
A veil of tears for the Virgin birth
I remember one Christmas morning
A winters light and a distant choir
And the peal of a bell and that Christmas Tree smell
And their eyes full of tinsel and fire
They sold me a dream of Christmas
They sold me a Silent Night
And they told me a fairy story
'Till I believed in the Israelite
And I believed in Father Christmas
And I looked TO the sky with excited eyes
'Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And I saw him and through his disguise
I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave New Year
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on Earth
Hallelujah Noel be it Heaven or Hell
The Christmas we get we deserve.
There's Sinfield:
ii. I believed in Santa Claus. (Or "Father Christmas,"as Sinfield prefers).
The use of the past tense usually IMPLICATES that the fact no longer holds:
iii. I used to live in Hawaii; in fact I still do.
The cancellation ("In fact, I still do") shows that "I used tolive in Hawaii"
is not inconsistent with the utterer still living inHawaii. Such is the marvel
of implicature.
On top, for Grice, 'see' is FACTIVE ("I saw a cow, but there was no cowthere to
be seen," is a trope -- his example, "Julius Caesar sawBanquo"). So, when
Sinfield writes that he BELIEVED (and in fact, stillbelieves, as the
implicature story goes) in Father Christmas UNTILL (Lakeprefers "'till") "I saw
him". This seems to CONFIRM thatFather Christmas (of Santa Claus as McEvoy
prefers) 'exists' (if not"really exists," as McEvoy has it). Unless Sinfield is
echoingJulius Caesar seeing Banquo.
On Dec 10, 2016, at 4:22 AM, Donal McEvoy (Redacted sender"donalmcevoyuk" for
DMARC) <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
very unusual in that it seems to imply that Santa doesn't really exist.I'd
been listening several times to it [recently] and am still unsure I'vequite
grasped its intended meaning.
very unusual in that it seems to imply that Santa doesn't really exist.I'd
been listening several times to it [recently] and am still unsure I'vequite
grasped its intended meaning.
