[Ads-l] allegory

Tue Sep 10 20:00:27 UTC 2019

Allegories are not accidental.  Allegories have programmed "hidden
meanings" that are more important than their surface meanings. Most of the
characters and events, moreover, are identifiable as representing abstract
ideas from which the reader/viewer is to draw some significant, perhaps
overlooked, truth about life. Allegories are intended to teach a guiding
philosophical, religious, political, or similar lesson.

What does Casablanca teach? That America was recently isolationist?
Casablanca says only that U.S. policy toward Germany changed.  Where's the
lesson? Everybody knew that in 1942. There are, IMO, the no hidden meanings
that are more important  than what the characters actually say and do.

Walt Disney's Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier, is a frontiersman.
But that doesn't make the movie an "allegory" of Manifest Destiny, the
Creek War, the South's desire to extend slavery into Mexico, or elite
disdain for the working class.

But the point here is that the word "allegory" is used in a highly dilute
form not yet recognized by OED.

JL

JL

JL

On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 2:17 PM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> Rick is America pre Pearl Harbor. He sees what is happening in Europe, but
> stays out of it. Then Europe (Ilsa + Victor) finds Rick, and Rick
> eventually joins the fight.
>
> On Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 1:03 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >  Please explain the allegory.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 11:50 AM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > I'm very confused. I would expect movie criticism to use "allegory"
> > often,
> > > when talking about allegories (such as Casablanca, which is an allegory
> > > about America isolationism).
> > >
> > > On Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 8:59 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > It may be common usage in movie criticism.  Discovered
> serendipitously:
> > > >
> > > > 1975 Richard Corliss, in Howard Koch, ed. _Casablanca - Script and
> > > Legend_
> > > > (Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press) 198:  _Casablanca_...succeeds as
> > > > allegory...and as a superb romantic melodrama.
> > > >
> > > > Corliss, of course, for decades was film critic for Time magazine .
> > > >
> > > > JL
> > > >
> > > > On Mon, Sep 9, 2019 at 4:47 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > > I deny the allegory and I resent the alligator.
> > > > > We didn't receive it - perhaps you needed more stamps.
> > > > >
> > > > > On Sun, Sep 8, 2019 at 3:08 PM Laurence Horn <
> laurence.horn at yale.edu
> > >
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I deny the allegory and I resent the alligator.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > On Sep 8, 2019, at 3:00 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
> > > wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
> > > > >
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > 2019
> > > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/review/2019/02/21/never-look-away-is-a-detached-and-arty-look-at-turbulent-times.html
> > > > > > > :
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > "Never Look Away is a sprawling allegory of the artistic
> impulse,
> > > > > arrayed
> > > > > > > on the canvas of the Second World War and the rise and fall of
> > the
> > > > > Nazis.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > There's nothing symbolic or particularly metaphorical in this
> > > movie,
> > > > > highly
> > > > > > > fictionalized from the life of the German artist Gerhard
> Richter.
> > > So
> > > > > > > "allegory" seems to mean something like "interesting or
> > provocative
> > > > > > > dramatic representation."
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > JL
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > "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
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > >
> > > > > a
> > > > >
> > > > > Andy Bach,
> > > > > afbach at gmail.com
> > > > > 608 658-1890 cell
> > > > > 608 261-5738 wk
> > > > >
> > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > > 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
> > > >
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > 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
> >
>
> On Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 1:03 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >  Please explain the allegory.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Tue, Sep 10, 2019 at 11:50 AM Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > I'm very confused. I would expect movie criticism to use "allegory"
> > often,
> > > when talking about allegories (such as Casablanca, which is an allegory
> > > about America isolationism).
> > >
> > > On Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 8:59 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > It may be common usage in movie criticism.  Discovered
> serendipitously:
> > > >
> > > > 1975 Richard Corliss, in Howard Koch, ed. _Casablanca - Script and
> > > Legend_
> > > > (Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press) 198:  _Casablanca_...succeeds as
> > > > allegory...and as a superb romantic melodrama.
> > > >
> > > > Corliss, of course, for decades was film critic for Time magazine .
> > > >
> > > > JL
> > > >
> > > > On Mon, Sep 9, 2019 at 4:47 PM Andy Bach <afbach at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > > I deny the allegory and I resent the alligator.
> > > > > We didn't receive it - perhaps you needed more stamps.
> > > > >
> > > > > On Sun, Sep 8, 2019 at 3:08 PM Laurence Horn <
> laurence.horn at yale.edu
> > >
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I deny the allegory and I resent the alligator.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > On Sep 8, 2019, at 3:00 PM, Jonathan Lighter <
> > > wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
> > > > >
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > 2019
> > > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/review/2019/02/21/never-look-away-is-a-detached-and-arty-look-at-turbulent-times.html
> > > > > > > :
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > "Never Look Away is a sprawling allegory of the artistic
> impulse,
> > > > > arrayed
> > > > > > > on the canvas of the Second World War and the rise and fall of
> > the
> > > > > Nazis.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > There's nothing symbolic or particularly metaphorical in this
> > > movie,
> > > > > highly
> > > > > > > fictionalized from the life of the German artist Gerhard
> Richter.
> > > So
> > > > > > > "allegory" seems to mean something like "interesting or
> > provocative
> > > > > > > dramatic representation."
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > JL
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > "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
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > >
> > > > > a
> > > > >
> > > > > Andy Bach,
> > > > > afbach at gmail.com
> > > > > 608 658-1890 cell
> > > > > 608 261-5738 wk
> > > > >
> > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > > 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
> > > >
> > >
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > 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
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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