SLSL "TSR"

[Paul Mackin]

Paul Mackin wrote:

> Dave Meury wrote:
>
>> I also found it odd that little Buttercup is never given a real name in
>> the story.  Also, while I have never seen or read the play, HMS
>> Pinafore, a summary tells me that it involves a case of mistaken
>> identity and of class differences.  This seems promising but do the
>> contents of the play "count"? or is it a stretch in relation to TSR.  If
>> there is a connection, the fact that Levine sleeps with Buttercup hits a
>> wrong note since she is an old woman in the play.
>>
In my previous comment I meant to do more than merely paraphrase Dave on 
the mistaken identity angle though he might already have carried it far 
enough. Perhaps I might have added that Buttercup in the opera is 
herself instrumental in straightening out the mistaken identity. That  
seems to me to add materially to the correspondence between the opera 
and the short story.  Isn't her  I'm Buttercup gambit pursued with the 
full knowledge Lardass will get the allusion despite his ordinary 
doughboy appearance?.

 Also, while Buttercup is no ingenue she isn't any  older than the 
captain, is she? Middle aged? Of course everybody looked old to me when 
I first heard Pinafore at the age of 12. Pasadena Civic Auditorium 
Children's Series, 1938. Yehudi Menuhin performed as a child prodigy in 
the same series. Bringing culture to one and all.

P.