Frivolous literary note

[dennis grace]

Hi, Joe,

>I dunno, Dennis.  I think this idea gets a bit too po-mo/meta-fictional
>for me.  Kind of like what one might get from Derrida-on-speed.

As an avid Barth, Pynchon, Barthelme (Donald, not the other shlub), Sterne,
and Chaucer, and Ovid reader, I don't believe you can get "too"
metafictional. :^>

>If you were to cite "keep cool, but care" in a paper or book, and had to
>footnote it, would you then attribute it to Sphere or Pynchon?

I would cite Pynchon's V via MLA parenthetical notation and a works cited
list, but I would attribute (textually) the line to the character.

>In this world, the world in which the phrase is cited, Pynchon *wrote* it.
>In the fictional world of V., Sphere *said* it.
>
>I think that were we to begin attributing words in works of fiction to the
>fictional characters who "said" them, well, things could get a bit more
>confusing than they need to be.  Slippery slope and all...?

Nah.  Slippery slope is where you say something like, "Look, the
illegitimacy rate is rising.  Therefore, someday most births will be
illegitimate."

>Also, you said that attributing "kill all the lawyers" to "Old Bill S."
>(I'm assuming you mean William S. Burroughs) is an error of like kind to
>attributing "keep cool, but care" to TRP.  I've never heard this line
>attributed to WSB, but even if it were, it's awfully different from
>attributing it to a fictional character.

Hmmm.  Okay, too obscure a reference on my part.  Old Bill S (as the rest of
my note suggests) is William Shakespeare.  "KATL"--Kill all the lawyers--is
the line I was discussing with regard to Old Bill.  KATL is one of those
character lines people who know nothing about Shakespeare love to attribute
to him.  Another is "All the world's a stage, . . . ," which drivel is
spouted by a character named Jacques (pronounced Jakes, as in "privy").  I
mean, hey, if all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely
players, where's the audience?

My problem with attributing character lines to authors is a writerly one.
Take Mark Twain or Alice Walker, for example.  Both of them have had
characters who make malicious use of the pejorative "nigger."  Now, do you
think either of them would appreciate seeing such a quote attributed to them
without the protective gauze of a character's voice?  I know I wouldn't want
my nastier characters' words attributed to me.  

As for the irreality of attributing such lines to the characters, consider
Mr. Musikar's remaining two sig lines.  He attributes "DON'T PANIC" to the
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a fictional creation of Douglas Adams; he
attributes "What, me worry?" to A.E. Newman, a fictional creation of
somebody at MAD magazine.  Such attributions are not unusual.

End of diatribe.

Thanks

Honos Servio
Dennis Grace
Recovering Medievalist