Seeing

[Rick Barr]

You're right: a wider view of the context is necessary. Here's the whole
first paragraph, which pretty much persuaded me that the first "seeing" also
meant "dating" and therefore the chronology was skewed. (FWIW, it's a good
story, regardless of that possible flaw.)

"Tonight I’m driving our exchange student, Azul, to his lover’s house on the
other side of town. Azul has been seeing this boy Ramon for the past three
months, and though I am not entirely thrilled about the idea, each Friday
night I drive him across town to see him. Azul never talks to me during
these trips, never even acknowledges my presence, but when we pull up close
to Ramon’s apartment he begins to check his face in the mirror, begins to
comb his hair and straighten his shirt. He smiles at me briefly before
turning his head toward the window and looking out at the long row of palm
trees that line the street. He has told me on more than one occasion that he
and Ramon are just friends, but I know from my wife Karen that this is just
a front, that he and Ramon have been seeing each other romantically for
almost a month."

-- Rick


On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 1:25 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Seeing
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In the absence of an indication that the first "seeing" could be replaced
> by "sighting", "observing", "encountering" -- which might be by indicating a
> place or circumstance where the chap was sighted: "Azul has been seeing this
> boy Ramon for the past three months about campus [or "when he went to the
> gas station" or the like)]" -- I think I would take it as meaning "dating".
>
> I would need to read the entire paragraph to be sure haw I would interpret
> it.
>
> GAT
>
> George A. Thompson
> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
> Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Rick Barr <rickbarremail at gmail.com>
> Date: Saturday, June 5, 2010 10:59 am
> Subject: Seeing
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> > In Andrew Porter's short story "Azul" (first published in *One Story*
> > in
> > 2006, later collected in the book *The Theory of Light and Matter*), the
> > narrator says this in the first paragraph: "Azul has been seeing this
> > boy
> > Ramon for the past three months." At the end of the paragraph, the
> narrator
> > says that Azul "and Ramon have been seeing each other romantically for
> > almost a month."
> >
> > I thought the first "see," in context, made it clear that Azul and Ramon
> > were having a romantic relationship. But then we are told that, after
> > two
> > months of non-romantic "seeing," a romantic "seeing" began.
> >
> > Does that sound odd to anyone else? Or am I alone in jumping to the
> > conclusion that the first "seeing" (because it said "seeing *each
> other*")
> > implied a romantic relationship?
> >
> > -- Rick
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org