In January, we will be reading Pygmalion by Shaw.
Please post your comments and questions here.
Pygmalion: Online Text
Book Club Procedures
In January, we will be reading Pygmalion by Shaw.
Please post your comments and questions here.
Pygmalion: Online Text
Book Club Procedures
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
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are we reading the novel version or the play version?
My mission in life is to make YOU smile
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The time has come," the Walrus said,"To talk of many things:
Forum Rules- You know you want to read 'em
|Litnet Challange status = 5/260
|currently reading
The play version. I was not aware that there was a novel version as well.Originally Posted by Nightshade
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
huh yes there is I read that already but this is good because the library only had the play version in
My mission in life is to make YOU smile
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The time has come," the Walrus said,"To talk of many things:
Forum Rules- You know you want to read 'em
|Litnet Challange status = 5/260
|currently reading
I read Act I today. Does anyone think it's possible for someone to tell what neighborhood you're from just by pronounciation? I know accents are more distinct in England and i'm sure people did not travel about as far before mass transportation. But still what Higgins does in Act I seems kind of improbable. Does it make a difference?
LET THERE BE LIGHT
"Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena
My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/
hey Virg, there's a professor of historical linguistics at my univ who can actually do that! Well, I'm not sure she can pin people down to exact lanes but she can locate them within a few kilometres based on their accent!
Those early phoneticians were virtually obsessed with their work (care to know how Daniel Jones determined the position of the tongue during the articulation of vowels? It's a gruesome story), so they might have actually been as precise as that.
If I remember correctly, the girl is to be cured of her Cockney accent, that has very old roots in particular areas of and around London, so that there perhaps might have been a distinction even between neighbourhoods. I think Higgins was modelled on the famous phonetician Daniel Jones, and being able to recognise an accent that clearly surely adds to his being greatly skilled.
"Where mind meets matter, both should woo!"Currently reading:
* Paradise Lost by John Milton
hehe Schoko, that was a good double post. Great minds think alike
Or else: two idiots - one thought ?Great minds think alike
"Where mind meets matter, both should woo!"Currently reading:
* Paradise Lost by John Milton
I am not from England, or more specifically London. I do understand that the English have more distinct accents between their localities than Americans. I'm trying to touch on my experience and see how someone could actually find disctinctions between neighborhoods of a city. I grew up in Brooklyn, one of the five Boroughs of New York city. There are subtle distinctions between someone from Brooklyn and say someone from Manhatten or Bronx. I guess it's possible to be so learned in the local speech patterns as to hear it. No one from outside New York would be able to hear the distinction and I would bet that 90% of New Yorkers wouldn't hear it either. Like I said above, the time before mass transportation and now mass communication those distinctions would have been sharper. On the other hand, New York City is a city of 8 million people. London at the time of Higgins was probably around a million. Who knows. I guess it's possible.If I remember correctly, the girl is to be cured of her Cockney accent, that has very old roots in particular areas of and around London, so that there perhaps might have been a distinction even between neighbourhoods. I think Higgins was modelled on the famous phonetician Daniel Jones, and being able to recognise an accent that clearly surely adds to his being greatly skilled
Certainly in the world of the play, one has to accept it as possible.
LET THERE BE LIGHT
"Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena
My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/
Couple of months ago, there was an article in the TIME magazine on a similar subject:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...535768,00.html
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
Hm..I also read Act I today. Is this meant to be a piece of satire?
Also, I find this Flower Girl to be extremely strange. She is dressed as a pauper, her accent reflects her as being a pauper (albeit a moaning, annoying one), yet she seems to be able to pay such things as a taxi fare! Is it out of cheating people from such methods as when she extracted money from the Mother? If so, then could it also be said that her moaning, weeping, and fear of the Notetaker as being a nark is just all an act to stir sympathy amongst the crowd (since it becomes very clear and evident that he is not going to inform the police about her)?
The significance of the title, Pygmalion, is also something I'm wondering about. At this point it doesn't appear to have any meaning, but perhaps later on.
“I thought what I’d do was, I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. That way I wouldn’t have to have any goddam stupid useless conversations with anybody.”
- Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye
Je ne pense pas donc je suis.
P.S. Discussion on 1984 - Share your thoughts, please?
online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21159
In egypt there was this case of a begger woman, when she died they clered out her hovel and she had 1/2 million pounds under her bed! appearnce are nohing.
Well Ive been reading finshed act1 and moved into the second one and I must say Ive never seen a moore snobish bigoted yes rasist is classest man like hiigins ever in life or books
My mission in life is to make YOU smile
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The time has come," the Walrus said,"To talk of many things:
Forum Rules- You know you want to read 'em
|Litnet Challange status = 5/260
|currently reading
I didn't read it as trying to stir smpathy. There is no question that class consciouness is part of what is going on in Act I and the rest of the play perhaps. Perhaps this is why (or one of the reasons) that the English have many more distinct accents: class structure. In America we have never had class distinctions.
LET THERE BE LIGHT
"Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena
My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/
"Hm..I also read Act I today. Is this meant to be a piece of satire? "
Yes
"Also, I find this Flower Girl to be extremely strange. She is dressed as a pauper, her accent reflects her as being a pauper (albeit a moaning, annoying one), yet she seems to be able to pay such things as a taxi fare! Is it out of cheating people"
No, it is because Higgins has just given her all his change - easy come, easy go.
"The significance of the title, Pygmalion, is also something I'm wondering about. At this point it doesn't appear to have any meaning, but perhaps later on."
Yes - .
Voices mysterious far and near,
Sound of the wind and sound of the sea,
Are calling and whispering in my ear,
Whifflingpin! Why stayest thou here?
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