Poss. Ety. of "twink" [Was Re: Theriomorphism in a Los Angeles Gay Community]

[ROBIN HAMILTON]

> If you look at the 1962 snippet carefully, you will notice
> that there
> are actually *multiple* versions of the poem with different
> final two lines.
>
>      VS-)

Mea culpa, Victor -- I was working entirely from the two texts Jon posted, and didn't go back to the source.

But if it *is the case (and I'm still going by what's been presented in posts, being too idle to do wot I ott) that the first 6 lines are stable, and the variants occur in the final (added/last) two lines, that would confirm my impression that what we have is a really quite sophisticated poem, to which extensions are later added once the text becomes detached from its origin.

Are the other [added]-final-lines as obviously divergent from, and inferior to, the first six, as was the case with the two to which I was reacting?

Robin

(PS.  I'd tend to say that what we have with regard to "twink[ie/le]" is a phonaesthetic complex rather than an example of onomatopoeia.  To add a few other comparable terms to the mix, all turning on a degree of ambiguity, sexual and otherwise, there's Widow Twankie (male/cross-dressing), Tinkerbelle (only alive when the audience responds affirmitively to the question, "Do you believe in fairies [sic}?", etc.

R.)

(PPS:  Jasper Fforde's novels could, I think, be better described as alternative-universe texts rather than time travel.  The first series (_The Eyre Affair_, etc.) turns on reversionings (remixes, samplings) of canonical texts, the second (ongoing?) series -- _The Fourth Bear_, _The Big Over Easy_ -- puts the english on nursery rhymes and fairy tales.

R-Out.)

> On 2/13/2010 12:08 PM, ROBIN HAMILTON wrote:
> > My immediate tuppenceworth, on no evidence whatsoever,
> is that the extra two lines are a later addition by a
> different author -- they add absolutely nothing to the
> substance of what went before, and are much more
> straightforward both in the linguistic games they play and
> the rhythm employed.
> >
> > Robin

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