[lit-ideas] The homophones of Isak Dinesen -- a review
- From: Torgeir Fjeld <torgeir_fjeld@xxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2013 12:38:55 +0000 (GMT)
While sipping a flat white on the banks of Florida phatic noticed a review of
Isak Dinesen on the culture pages of the broadsheet he held. It said,
[In "Ehrengaard",] the Old Lady's introduction suddenly becomes loded with
irony created on the level of the author: "I am not going to give you the real
name of this country, nor of the ladies and gentlemen within my tale. ... I
shall inform you that the stage of our little comedy or tragedy was the lovely
country and the fine city of Babenhausen, and that you will be devoting you \r
attention to a chronicle of the Grand Ducal house of Fugger-Babenhausen. And as
to the course of my narrative new gentlemen and ladies make their appearance in
it, I shall endebour to find a new /noble/ name for each of them."
The Grand Ducal house becomes saucy "Fucker Babe-n-hausen" in English. And what
about Ludmilla from the princely house of Leuchtenstein? /Leucht/ means
"bright" in German, but when pronounced in Danish it sounds like /lugt/
(smell).
Further, Ehrengard's fatherm General von Schreckenstein, to be "first married
to a von Kniphausen and by her had five sons", -- well, /Knip/ in Danish sounds
short of the infitive /kneppe/, which means to have sexual intercourse. Also,
the name of the novella itself, /Ehrengard/, -- /Ehre/ means "honor" in German
and Danish (/aere/), and gard is homophonic with English guaard, thus "Guard of
Honor." von Schreckenstein -- screck means /skraek/ (Danish, "terror" in
English) and /von/ is German for /from/, thus: "The Guard of Honor from the
Area of Terror."
The joke here, the author, one Bunch of Copenhagen, informs us, is that this
area of terror has to do with the underbelly.
phatic rested his cup. The traffic had come to a stand still.
All indices pointed to an uneventful afternoon. In Florida.
phatic
@m_phatic
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