Marine [and] his-story; rape; "Negro"

[Joel S. Berson]

A few comments on the linguistic aspects.  I may
make some (negative) comments on Adhikari's
hiostoriography later, after I've read his article.

At 10/15/2010 01:27 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>P. 52: "In Michener's 'his story,' Tony Fry becomes a hero."

[And later, Jon wrote:]
>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 To[n]kinese
>woman. But maybe "his-story" means "history (which includes fiction) written
>by a man." Who knows?

I think "his story" is merely an attempt to be
clever and call attention to the writer's
(Adhikari's) distinction between "history", as
commonly thought to mean the facts, and "his
story", meaning "what Michener creates as having
happened".  (Too cute for my taste.)  Thus it is not an allusion to gender.

>Also, _rape_ = 'serious distortion.'
>
>P. 44: "Plausible documents need to be created to bridge evident gaps [in
>historical records]. This is not a rape of history but a generous act to
>give credibility and continuity to it."

If we instead take "rape" = '*violent*
distortion', this does not seem to me to be
unacceptably far from rape n.3 sense 2.c, "In
extended use".  A few quotations from the OED:
      1677 R. GILPIN Dæmonol. Sacra I. xii. 94 If
thou yield, will not God account it a rape upon thine integrity?
      a1704 T. BROWN Satire French King in Wks.
(1707) I. i. 92 Old Jerom's Volumnes next I made a Rape on.
      1815 J. HUTTON Fashionable Follies Pref.,
Sir, you have committed a rape upon my play.
      1975 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Oct. 1217/5 It is
his job to save Juli from the hangman and, in the
final court scene, he does it by the public rape
of the boy's secret personality and the destruction of his genius.

If one can rape integrity, volumes, plays, or
genius, surely one can rape history, which is
merely (apart from artifacts) what is written in volumes (and other documents).

At 10/15/2010 09:58 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Why _Negro_ is repeatedly in scare quotes I can only guess.  That is indeed
>the word Michener uses - the same as most polite people of every race in the
>1940s.

The answer, I think, is:  "Because 'Negro' is a
word polite people of every race are not supposed
to use today, therefore I put it into quotes to
show that I am not using it either, I am just
displaying to you that Michener used it."  But I
sympathize with authors today who are faced with
earlier documents using various forms of the
N-word (and with Argus-eyed, prissy journal
editors) -- where and how does one admit it
(them), or does one not use it/cut it out
entirely?  (It should not be altered in quotations.)

Joel

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