David,
I read a review, probably in the NYROB about the Inklings and at one
time C. S. Lewis wrote some reviews of JRR Tolkein's writings, or maybe
just the /Hobbit /that attempted to define or explain Tolkein's work.
He seemed to be thinking that Tolkein needed to be explained. Of course
now most of us would rate or value Tolkein higher than Lewis. Tolkein,
I read elsewhere seemed to immerse himself so much in "Middle Earth"
that one might think he preferred to live there. That always struck me
as a valuable thing for a writer to be able to do.
In case of the society of your chickens I suppose we would think of
Chaucer's /Nun Priest's Tale /and "Chanticleer." And there have been
many fables -- I'm sure Esperanza could think of more than I could, and
Borges wrote that when his father explained how the tortoise could
defeat the hare it was extremely memorable. Orwell's /Animal Farm/ also
comes to mind.
For me, coming sad and drear from one of my poems it is difficult to
shift to your clever and witty fables, but I was never ever annoyed. I
promise.
Lawrence, who lives with Ben and Duffy both of whom are smarter than one
might think
On 11/30/2015 8:24 PM, david ritchie wrote:
People are quiet when I post my contributions. These do appear often, the
contribs. Not the responses. I do hope I have not become annoying. As one
ages—let the record show that I have not become really serious about that
particular project yet— such issues become harder to assess. Of course the
list is largely composed of old fogies, so why worry?
To business. I have recently wondered whether a history of the word “savvy”
would be a good subject to investigate. It seems to me the epitome of an
Englishman lost in foreign parts and assuming that if the French are foreign,
all else must be similarly foreign. How often have we seen in imperial movies
the young soldier asking, “Savvy?” From savoir. And then comes the twist.
The exclamation of a lost soul, “savvy,” becomes, “he or she understands and is
fluent in what I regard to be foreign.”
That person is “savvy” in computers.
Surely this is a topic for those who are savvy in phil and lit?
David Ritchie,
who finally defeated “auto-correct” in
Portland,
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