Creeping Figs

[Otto]

The translation kills that "inaccuracy" by adding a new sentence with
a new subject after a komma, there it's the "sunlight" that is
"oozing" or "leaking" through the fig leaves outside the window:

"Später als sonst dämmerte Zoyd Wheeler an einem Sommermorgen des
Jahres 1984 aus dem Schlaf, hinein in ein Sonnenlicht, das durch die
Feigenblätter vor dem Fenster sickerte  (...)." (7)

But what always struck me was that "Later than usual" -- as if we ever
get a chance to see a "normal" day in Zoyd's life in the course of the
novel!

And at what time we expect a hippie to get up normally? What is "late"?

Otto

2006/9/16, Carvill John <johncarvill at hotmail.com>:
> Much as I love Vineland, and definitely *not* wishing to stir up the whole
> political debate around it, I've always found the opening sentence quite
> odd:
>
> "Later than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd Wheeler drifted awake in
> sunlight through a creeping fig that hung in the window, with a squadron of
> blue jays..." etc.
>
> Ok, leaving everything else aside, does that 'in sunlight through' strike
> anyone else as slightly jarring, as if we'd expect something else between
> 'sunlight' and 'through'? Some variant on, say, 'in sunlight that', I dunno,
> 'shone through', 'filtered through'.......?
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Cheers
> JC
>
>
>