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| Not dead yet |
Salvador Dali disparaged the performing arts because of their ephemeral nature. It has been suggested that Bennett was in this play drawing a parallel between history and theatre; both existing only for a moment and then living on solely in the memories of those who witnessed it and what they pass on to others. I think that, in its own small way, wargaming is also like that. I shall in future classify my opponents into the Lintott-like sticklers for fact, the Irwin-like cynical win-at-all-cost types and, my own clear preference, the poetic Hectors (minus the ball-cradling obviously).
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| A dog in a hat |
There has been some comment on your bloggist's tendency to include passages and quotations in foreign languages, and his possible motivations for so doing (*). The History Boys contains a longish scene early in the first act which is entirely in French. Bennett clearly sees no need to translate or explain and it didn't seem to affect the enjoyment of the audience last night. Discuss.
(*) For once Monsieur Fwa is incorrect; I don't do it to annoy. I do it because I am a superficial pseudo-intellectual regurgitating my gobbets.
Foreign languages - I had considered that it would be amusing simply to comment on the previous post in German, but then I decided (1) this definitely would be pretentious, not to say irritating (2) my German is almost certainly not good enough to carry it off, and I might look like a prat. German and French are probably OK, I suppose, Icelandic was a bit less comfortable, as I recall, and Welsh or Gaelic would generally be considered out of order.
ReplyDeleteA strange thing, the foreign language - as a kid I once attended a concert by Georges Brassens at Liverpool Bluecoat Chambers which was attended by a goodly proportion of the grammar-school kids of the city, and it was most enjoyable, but it was edgy, too, in that there was a lot of over-hearty laughter at the jokes in the songs (not all of which are readily accessible to schoolkids, in whatever language), and I went home most depressed that my grasp of French was clearly so poor, in comparison to my peers from other schools. It might have been poor, in fact, but it was only later in life that it dawned on me that most of the over-hearty laughers probably had very little ****ing idea what he was on about either.
It used to be necessary for books with any kind of academic intent to contain quotations in Greek - without translation, naturally, since this is an inclusive device - it makes it clear that it is taken for granted that the people who read this book are people who understand such things (i.e. by default, had a private education), and gives those who do not understand a nice, warm little feeling that somehow they pass muster, that they are accepted in such a group.
I digress. My personal experience of speaking Foreign is that it is fraught with a few inherent risks, not the least being that someone may be persuaded to reply in the same language (a phenomenon which I have always thought of as the Berlitz Paradox), and then we are in the merda.
I am delighted to note that AB is still not dead - excellent news.
Even I could work that one out !, Tony
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