[lit-ideas] Re: "Trick Or Treat?": The Implicatures -- Notes Towards A Griceian Halloween
- From: profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 31 Oct 2015 06:08:40 -0700
Sent from my iPad
On Oct 31, 2015, at 4:39 AM, (Redacted sender "Jlsperanza" for DMARC)
<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
iii. "Trick or treat?" -- which is NOT a rhetoric question -- "in REALITY",
or really, MEANS 'sacrifice or curse?'.
(Snip)
Apparently, Halloween originates in Ireland, and it was due to the Irish
'immigration' (or 'emigration', as the Irish prefer) to the USA that this
'rhetorical eschatological inclusive disjunctive implicature-triggering
question' travelled 'across the non-pacific pond' (i.e. the atlantic ocean).
"The concept of 'sacrifice' is an obscure one," Geary notes. "And so is
that of 'curse'". "This puts Halloween as one of American most serious
celebrations. The fact that today it is also celebrated in Tokyo says much
about
the Irish," he adds.
If in southern Italy there are similar celebrations that's a SOUTHERN
Italian problem
May I suggest that those of you not busy with "the rugby" or the World Series
or putting in the daffodils watch the brief charivari scene in "The Return if
Martin Guerre"? In that ritual the point of going to someone's house in costume
was to demand that he or she fix what the village regarded as a moral problem.
And for pointing out this threat to the polis, villagers expected a reward. I
think that anyone looking for the origin of Halloween should consider the shape
of charivari, which was a widespread phenomenon. (See the work of Natalie Zemon
Davis on this)
David Ritchie,
Manhattan------------------------------------------------------------------
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