Marine; soldier = 'naval seaman'; his-story = 'history focused on men'; etc.

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Tonkinese," of course.

JL

On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 10:19 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Actually, those are the professor's words, not Michener's. I don't what
> they're based on. No "'Negroes'" "die early" in this book, as far as I can
> tell.  Michener's narrator (who is clearly not identical with the author,
> BTW) does refer offhandedly to Melanesians as "Negroes," and a few of them
> do die (some heroically), but the anthropological inaccuracy is a) innocent
> and b) at least recognized by the OED.
>
> Though couched in sentimental 1940s style, the overcoming of racial
> prejudice is frankly the theme of at least two of Michener's stories.
>
> Though not "herstory," it seems absurd to call Michener's book "his-story,"
> since one of his major characters is a Navy nurse and another is a Tokinese
> woman. But maybe "his-story" means "history (which includes fiction) written
> by a man." Who knows?
>
> Because I'm not very familiar with Ondaatje's novel, I didn't read the
> parts of the article concerning _The English Patient_.
>
> JL
>
>  On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 9:47 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: Marine; soldier = 'naval seaman'; his-story = 'history
>>              focused on men'; etc.
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 5:44 PM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> quoted:
>>
>> > "In general, 'Negroes' are ... destined to die very early."
>>
>>
>> Perhaps what I've been accustomed to refer to as _Pryor's Law_, WRT
>> the entertainment media,
>>
>> "The nigger gets killed."
>>
>> should be renamed to _Michener's Observation_, WRT reality. or some such.
>>
>> --
>> -Wilson
>> –––
>> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
>> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>> –Mark Twain
>>
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>> 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."
>



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