February / Capote Book: 'The Grass Harp'

[Virgil]

Glad you can join us Nighty.

[ranzy]

A question that came into my mind, since English is not my mother tongue (and I'm reading the novel in English). Are names/surnames such as Verena, Talbo, Cool, Candle, Buster common in the U.S.A.? because they sound odd to me...
If that's really so I was wondering if you think they may have some meaning related to the person they refer to (like judge Cool is a cool person, or sheriff Candle metaphorically takes easily fire ) or maybe Capote choose them just to underline the surrealism and oddity of the story and the characters.
I hope you have understood what I'm trying to say.

[Virgil]

A question that came into my mind, since English is not my mother tongue (and I'm reading the novel in English). Are names/surnames such as Verena, Talbo, Cool, Candle, Buster common in the U.S.A.? because they sound odd to me...
If that's really so I was wondering if you think they may have some meaning related to the person they refer to (like judge Cool is a cool person, or sheriff Candle metaphorically takes easily fire ) or maybe Capote choose them just to underline the surrealism and oddity of the story and the characters.
I hope you have understood what I'm trying to say.

I wouldn't say they are common. I haven't been able to find significance in them yet. Right now (I'm about to finish chapter two) I think they are just names.

Except for Dolly. I think there is significance in that name. "doll" - child girl.

[ranzy]

I wouldn't say they are common. I haven't been able to find significance in them yet. Right now (I'm about to finish chapter two) I think they are just names.

Except for Dolly. I think there is significance in that name. "doll" - child girl.

I agree with the fact that they haven't got any significance yet, but what I'd like to know from an American reader is if they are just names which are not too common but sound normal, or if they create in you a sense of strangeness and if you think that this is wanted.

[Virgil]

but what I'd like to know from an American reader is if they are just names which are not too common but sound normal, or

I think that would be my imprssion. Rather normal sounding.

[Serengeti]

Cool, I'm glad the Grass Harp was picked. I'll start reading it.

[Serengeti]

I'm in chapter 2. It's very readable and enjoyable. It reminds me a lot of To Kill a Mockingbird, which Capote was a character in.

[Janine]

guess who found a copy?!
about half way through the frst chapter....

Nightshade, glad you found a copy. I had my library order me in one from another library. Amazon also has paperback copies for sale quite cheap.

Virgil, Thanks for taking the time to type this opening passage. It definitely piqued my interest and now I can't wait until the book arrives. The second paragraph is so poetic. I love the description of the tree turning colors, recalling the wind as a "harp of voices"....wonderful.

I sure hope my book comes in next week. I want badly to read it now. I have only read Capote's "In Cold Blood" years ago and it kept my interest, a real page turner. I have read only good things online about "The Grass Harp" and the film based on the book, so now I am highly interested.

[Scheherazade]

I am waiting for my copy from Amazon as well as my library could not *gasps* locate a copy for me anywhere.

I got ambitious and ordered this one, in the hope that one day I will give other works of Capote a chance!

[Janine]

How long is this book to be discussed? This whole month? I sure hope mine comes soon from my library. That is a good volume your acquired Scher for a good price. Thanks for the link...that is the UK site. My library does have "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and a few other works of Capote's, unfortunately it did not have "The Grass Harp" - it figures. They are getting it from another library in the system, I just hope it comes in time.

Virgil and Ranzy, From knowing something about "Breakfast at Tiffany's" I would answer that probably Capote did put significance on this name choices. He was very flamboyant and probably got a kick out of doing this. If I am correct in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" the main character is Holly Golightly. That would definitely have a connotation to it, knowing a little about the book and the character from the film. I plan on reading the book soon after "The Grass Harp".

[SleepyWitch]

I started reading it last night. I'm in chapter 2, p. 35. So far I like it a lot.

what's a morphodyte? Collin's father spread the rumour that Verena is a morphodyte. Couldn't find it in wiki, Meriam Webster or Longman...

[Virgil]

I started reading it last night. I'm in chapter 2, p. 35. So far I like it a lot.

what's a morphodyte? Collin's father spread the rumour that Verena is a morphodyte. Couldn't find it in wiki, Meriam Webster or Longman...

I don't know. I couldn't find it anywhere either. But I did find this:

Main Entry: morphodite
Part of Speech: n
Definition: shortened version of hermaphrodite

Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6)
Copyright © 2003-2006 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC

And:

"Morphodite" is comic pronunciation, considered offensive, of the word hermaphrodite. Used most notably in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, when Miss Maudie refers to the snowman Jem and Scout built. To disguise the snowman's obvious and unfortunate resemblence to Mr. Avery, the children borrow Miss Maudie's hat and hedge-clippers. The attempts to feminize the caricature fall short and Miss Maudie describes their creation as "an absolute morphodite." It is used again in the book when Scout parrots the phrase she heard, and screams at her older brother, Jem "You damn morphodite, I'll kill you!"
The word is also used as an insult in the Stephen King short story, "The Body."

This word was also used on a 2006 episode of Spike TV's "Disorderly Conduct" in a string of insults hurled at a police officer arresting a very, very drunk man.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday January 04, 2007 at 13:25:42 PST (GMT -0800)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation

I guess it means someone who sex is ambiguous. I don't like the word. Has an ugly sound. Interesting Capote would characterize someone that way. I don't know if people know, but he was homosexual.

[SleepyWitch]

I guess it means someone who sex is ambiguous. I don't like the word. Has an ugly sound. Interesting Capote would characterize someone that way. I don't know if people know, but he was homosexual.

yeah, I thought it means hermaphrodite seeing as Verena looks and behaves like a man.
thanks Virgil.
nope I didn't know he was homosexual

[Virgil]

yeah, I thought it means hermaphrodite seeing as Verena looks and behaves like a man.
thanks Virgil.
nope I didn't know he was homosexual

From an online biographical outline:

His first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms in 1948 would increase his fame and praise, as well as draw controversy for the stories subject matter: a boy who falls in love with a transvestite. The publication also drew notice for the book's photograph, which portrayed Truman in a subtle, yet obviously provocative, posture.

Truman was never one to hide his homosexuality. In fact, many gay and lesbian groups today praise Truman for his bravery both in social life and in his writings. While his mother never accepted his choice and often tried to change her son, Truman owned his sexuality at an early age and lived it to his fullest.

Like many in the social elite, Truman had many relationships. Most notably perhaps is his long time affair with Jack Dunphy whom he met in 1948. Though not an exclusive relationship, the two of them would remain together in one way or another throughout their lives and shared separate houses on the same property.

The contrast of southern life and big city society, along with Truman's sexual themes in many of his stories, helped define Capote as a writer. But that was only part of what made his stories successful. Truman also had a sensitivity and a flare for being able to capture the truth of real life. This great ability lead to what would become one of his greatest works, Breakfast at Tiffany's.

http://www.capotebio.com/biography/biography.php

[Nightshade]

I don't know. I couldn't find it anywhere either. But I did find this:

And:


I guess it means someone who sex is ambiguous. I don't like the word. Has an ugly sound. Interesting Capote would characterize someone that way. I don't know if people know, but he was homosexual.

From oxford online-

morphodite, n.:-
1. Originally: a hermaphrodite; a person having both male and female sex characteristics. In later use also: a homosexual man or woman, esp. one overtly manifesting features or attributes regarded as characteristic of the opposite sex; a transvestite.

a1726 J. VANBRUGH Provok'd Wife (1743) IV. 55, I heard Mr. Constable say,..she was little better than a Mophrodite [sic]. 1742 H. FIELDING Joseph Andrews I. I. viii. 47 You must..get a Sett of Mophrodites to wait upon you. 1896 Dial. Notes 1 421 Morphodite,..for hermaphrodite. 1935 J. O'HARA Appointment in Samarra 161 A unique, she told him, was a morphadite. 1941 G. LEGMAN Lang. Homosexuality in G. W. Henry Sex Variants II. 1171 Morphodite, a colloquial illiteracy for hermaphrodite..referring to either a physical hermaphrodite..or to a male homosexual. 1951 T. CAPOTE Grass Harp (1952) i. 3 One of the stories he spread, that Verena was a morphodyte, has never stopped going around. 1962 T. BERGER Reinhart in Love 180 ‘Raven is what you call a transvestite.’ ‘What's that?’.. ‘Morphadike’. 1975 R. DAVIES World of Wonders (1977) I. vi. 49 Let's not hear anymore about Happy Hannah or that gaffed morphodite Andro. 1985 E. T. RATTRAY Adventures Jeremiah Dimon 169 ‘The whale..suckles his young.’ ‘Suckles his young? Is he some kind of morphydyke?’ 1988 E. WHITE Beautiful Room Empty (1989) vi. 126 No morphrodites, for that's what they called homosexuals down South. No morphrodites in our bloodlines! 1991 W. ROSCOE Zuni Man-woman i. 25 In the late nineteenth century, slang variants of hermaphroditehermaphy, moff, morph, morphodite..and so onwere used by Americans to refer to flamboyant male homosexuals.
2. U.S. A sailing vessel combining the characteristics of two different types of craft; esp. one having the features of both a brig and a schooner. Obs.

1840 F. L. OLMSTED Whaling Voyage 217 She is one of those vessels rigged in defiance of all symmetry, and very appropriately termed ‘Morferdites’ (Hermaphrodites) by seamen. 1842 in D. W. Morgan Brief Glory (1948) 153 Launched from the slipway of Messrs. Roberts and Son, the Mophradite ‘Catherine Hodges’ of 180 tons burden. 1890 A. BARRÈRE & C. G. LELAND Dict. Slang II. 65/2 Morfydite (American), a maritime pronunciation for hermaphrodite, generally applied to the so-called hermaphrodite brig, a vessel between a brig and a schooner.
3. Eng. regional (east.). A wagon able to be converted into a cart. Cf. MORFREY n.

a1855 W. T. SPURDENS Forby's Vocab. E. Anglia (1858) III, Morfradite, Hermaphrodite, a kind of agricultural carriage, capable of being used with four wheels, or with two, either as cart or waggon. 1889 E. PEACOCK Gloss. Words Manley & Corringham, Lincs. (ed. 2), Mophrodite,..(2) A waggon that can be converted into a cart. 1960 A. O. D. CLAXTON

so I think the first defention .