[Ads-l] Media Inquiry (Mike Pence calling his wife "Mother")

James A. Landau JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM
Sun Feb 5 01:15:01 UTC 2017


Isaac Asimov  _Second Foundation_   published as a book in 1953, as a magazine serial in Astounding Science Fiction in 1949

There is a character named Preem Palver, who is introduced as a farmer and the leader of a cooperative of farms (we find out later that he is living a double life).  He habitually calls his wife "Mamma" and she calls him "Pappa".

I suspect Asimov was trying to keep the reader from getting suspicious that Palver was more than a farmer by having him speak as a stereotypical peasant.  However, at least once Palver throws in a Yiddishicism ("time, shmime") as if Palver were a Jewish peasant.

- Jim Landau

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