[lit-ideas] Re: The Bird & Baby
- From: "Donal McEvoy" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "donalmcevoyuk" for DMARC)
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2017 08:39:45 +0000 (UTC)
Talk amongst yourselves....>
Perhaps Ursula should have stuck with the normal US variant "among", which is
easier to say without slurring after an epic pub crawl. Otoh, it is polite to
imply there is more than two of us.
D
From: Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, 2 March 2017, 4:31
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The Bird & Baby
Been there. Done that. Also the Lamb and Flag. That's all. Talk amongst
yourselves....
On Mar 1, 2017, at 6:49 PM, (Redacted sender "jlsperanza" for DMARC)
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
McEvoy observes re: Ritchie's reference to "The Philosopher's Arms" -- where
Matthew Sweet examines philosophical problems with a live audience in a pub --:
"Well obviously Heidegger would have whatever Hitler was having. But then
Hitler was banned for fomenting a putsch last time he brought his crowd in. So,
following Die Fuhrer's later example, Heidegger should have a large hemlock and
soda or, to keep in with late period Nazi trends, a cyanide and soda. Sticking
with German-speakers but moving on from Nazi sympathizers, Wittgenstein and
Popper wouldn't be drinking anything alcoholic, and Popper would have cotton
wool in his ears to protect them against the jukebox so he wouldn't hear any
offer of a drink."
Oddly, H. P. Grice, since we are talking of Witters, had a bit of a split
personality, in the right usage of 'personality'. Anyone familiar with St.
John's (no, not Jesus's cousin, but the educational institution at Oxford,
formerly a Cistercian monastery -- but I don't use "College", since Nancy
Mitford says that it's "non-U" to add "college" to something that is OBVIOUSLY
so -- and in a context when I cannot be referring to Jesus's cousin) knows that
there are, within walking distance, but one across the street, TWO pubs: Bird
and Baby (of Lewis's and Tolkien's fame) and "Lamb and Flag."
Now, while Matthew Sweet examines philosophical problems (with an attempt at
dissolving them, I expect) with a live audience in a pub, Grice didn't.
When Grice moved to Berkeley ("Westward the empire strikes its way") he noted
the absence of 'pubs' -- short for 'public house'. Benson Mates, a colleague at
Berkeley, corrected Grice: "Strictly, there ARE public houses in Berkeley, but
not in YOUR usage." This is possibly the first non-use of 'implicature', since
Mates meant, "in your implicature'.
Etc.
Note incidentally, the implicature of 'live' audience as opposed to an 'alive'
audience. Sweet is playing with the fact that Grice once said, "We should treat
those philosophers who were great [as Witters wasn't -- the implicature going,
since he has just called him 'minor, like Bosanquet and Wollaston] and dead as
if they were great and alive." The implicature is 'live', but Grice won't say
it!
Bob Dylan would say that the difference between a 'live audience' (or
spectator, as I prefer) and an 'alive' audience (or spectator) rests in that
particle he is so fond of: "as we were a-walking in the fields" -- the
'balladic' "a-" (Anglo-Saxon "y-").
And stuff.
Speranza
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