"Even his name means wanker."

[Laurence Horn]

On Aug 14, 2014, at 11:09 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> The book is no longer in front of me (don't know why), but "beauteous
> niggard" may not be filthy enough to mention.
> 
> Indeed, it was Heraclitus (even his name reeks of porn)

Yeah, and that was after he shortened it to get past the censors.

LH

> who said, "You
> can't read  Wanker's fourth sonnet the same way once."
> 
> I stand corrected.
> 
> 
> JL
> 
> 
> On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 10:49 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Re: "Even his name means wanker."
>> 
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> On Aug 14, 2014, at 10:35 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> 
>>> You know who. Think about it. Oxford educator Pauline Kiernan spells =
>> it out
>>> again and again in her hilarious _Filthy Shakespeare_ (Quercus, 2005).
>>> =20
>>> But wait... The dust jacket calls this Four-X-rated treatment of the =
>> bard
>>> "deeply insightful."  So it isn't hilarious after all! It's true! =
>> (Maybe
>>> both? Naaaa. But postmodernwise you can't tell what's real and what's =
>> a
>>> riotous put-on. If you think you can, perhaps you're already =
>> obsolete.)
>>> =20
>>> As for Kiernan, you be the judge. In any event, you'll never read =
>> Sonnet IV
>>> the same way again.
>>> =20
>>> JL
>> 
>> Referring, I gather, to the references to spending.  Point taken (unless =
>> we never read it the same way again in the first place).  But then again =
>> it was already pretty challenging (especially in class) to deal with =
>> line 5, where the poet addresses his narcissist lover as "beauteous =
>> niggard".
>> 
>> LH
>>> =20
>>> =20
>>> =20
>>> --=20
>>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the =
>> truth."
>>> =20
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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