Re: GR translation: checking out tits ‘n’ asses, waistlines ‘n’ baskets

[kelber at mindspring.com]

I agree with Jochen that, having just used the word "tits," Pynchon is unlikely to immediately use a second word with the same meaning. Both the urban dictionary link cited by Jochen and the OED define basket as sometimes referring to male crotch-bulge, and this seems like the most likely meaning in this context. Especially since the person doing the looking is described as a transectite - a play on transvestite - a man who might very well be checking out both female and male body parts.

The Ella song derives from one of the nursery rhymes I remember from childhood, in which the word " basket" refers to ... A basket.

Laura

Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:

>I love Ella, and breasts....
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>Www.innergroovemusic.com
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>On Oct 13, 2015, at 11:11 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
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>In this Ella context, I think the proverbial basket is also often also called many other containers...
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>But a translation won't be able, normally, to include these allusions.  Be literal, and let the reader dig for meaning.
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>David Morris
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>David Morris
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>On Tuesday, October 13, 2015, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
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>Ella Fitzgerald - A-Tisket, A-Tasket (High Quality - Remastered)
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>Lyrics
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>A-tisket A-tasket
>A brown and yellow basket
>I send a letter to my mommy
>On the way I dropped it
>I dropped it
>I dropped it
>Yes on the way I dropped it
>A little girlie picked it up
>And put it in her pocket
>SHE WAS TRUCKIN ON DOWN THE AVENUE
>Not a single thing to do
>She went peck peck pecking all around
>When she spied it on the ground
>She took it
>She took it
>My little yellow basket
>And if she doesn't bring it back I think that I will die
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>A-tisket A-tasket
>I lost my yellow basket
>And if the girlie don't return it
>Don't know know what I'll do
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>Oh dear I wonder where my basket can be
>(So do we, so do we, so do we, so do we, so do we)
>Oh gee I wish that little girl I could see
>(So do we, so do we, so do we, so do we, so do we)
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>Oh why… Full lyrics on Google Play
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>On Tuesday, October 13, 2015, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
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>Of all the available words, breasts seems the warmest and most intimate. I'm sticking with that...
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>On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 9:54 AM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
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>basket for breasts in this context seems rather unlikely as we have the tits just a few words before. 
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>In the urban dictionary I found that: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=basket: Could mean balls, obviously, but vagina too. Take your pick?
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>2015-10-13 12:16 GMT+02:00 Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>:
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>Baskets, noun, the female breasts, ROUTLEDGE DICT OF MODERN SLANG, interestingly no citation earlier than 1965. An anachronistic usage from the fountainhead of the sixties. 
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>Sent from my iPad
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>On Oct 13, 2015, at 2:01 AM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
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>I would think the things normal bras have two of.
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>2015-10-13 5:36 GMT+02:00 Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>:
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>Best ... P-List ... subject line ... ever ...
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>On Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 9:42 PM, Mike Jing
><gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
>> V653.4-14   But he gets no farther than Nürnberg, where his valise, with
>> Byron wrapped inside in an alb, is ripped off by a transsectite, a Lutheran
>> named Mausmacher who likes to dress up in Roman regalia. This Mausmacher,
>> not content with standing in front of his own mirror making papal crosses,
>> thinks it will be a really bizarre kick to go out to the Zeppelin field to a
>> Nazi torchlight rally in full drag, and walk around blessing people at
>> random. Green torches flaring, red swastikas, twinkling brasses and Father
>> Mausmacher, checking out tits ‘n’ asses, waistlines ‘n’ baskets, humming a
>> clerical little tune, some Bach riff, smiling as he moves through the Sieg
>> Heils and choruses of “Die Fahne Hoch.”
>>
>> What is the basket in "waistlines ‘n’ baskets"?
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>Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
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>-- 
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>www.innergroovemusic.com
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