SEELANGS Digest - 14 Jul 2009 (#2009-235)

[Robert Chandler]

Dear sbpearl and all!

I like 'improving' very much.  It is a word that I can indeed imagine the
narrator saying through gritted teeth.  And, at the same time, it is a word
that I can imagine Gorky actually using.

Actually, I am kicking myself for not having remembered it myself.  I too
remember it from my youth, but it is a long time since I have heard it used!

Vsego dobrogo,

Robert




> "Kul'turniye Igrushki".
> "kul'turniy"  is perhaps one of the many Russian words words which are better
> categorised as "overlapping but not concentric" with their English
> counterpart, than as "lozhniy drug".
>  If the various versions proposed have correctly captured the spirit of of the
> Gorky phrase, "educational toys" would certainly do. A word which might also
> capture the emotive element of "scorn" in the author's use of the phrase might
> be "improving". In my youth , elders and betters would disparage comic books
> in favour of "improving" literature.
>  
> It's possible this this term may have more resonance for speakers of British
> English?
>  
>  
> - On Wed, 7/15/09, SEELANGS automatic digest system <LISTSERV at bama.ua.edu>
> wrote:
> 
> 
> From: SEELANGS automatic digest system <LISTSERV at bama.ua.edu>
> Subject: SEELANGS Digest - 14 Jul 2009 (#2009-235)
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
> Date: Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 1:00 AM
> 
> 
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