GRGR: TRP's French WAS Re: Une or un (Was: Paris Visit)

[Doug Millison]

According to the Petit Robert, "permanance", a feminine noun, does not
carry the slang meaning of "leave" as suggested in some other posts.

Paul's discussion below of "un permissionaire" may be a bit confusing, as
this noun means, specifically, "soldat en permission", thus referring to
the person on leave and not the duration of the leave.

Pynchon's use of "un perm' ", abbreviating "un permissionaire" and
referring to Slothrop, seems the best reading. But, typically, the use of
the apostrophe leaves a generous measure of indeterminacy in the text.

At 9:56 AM -0400 8/30/99, Paul Mackin wrote:
>Since Slothrop was in Monaco for a matter of months  (wasn't he)
>it shoulda been 'un congE au casino Hermann Goering, n'est-ce pas? But
>seriously, my Mansion seems to say that 'un permissionaire' mentioned
>by Doug tends to suggest an even shorter  time than 'une permission,' the
>former being akin to 'liberty' (in the Navy where I was) where you are
>allowed away for a matter of hours or at most a weekend, perhaps needing
>to be back to the ship or base by midnight. Perhaps P was being funny or
>something.
>
>

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