the holocaust in TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

[Jochen Stremmel]

I think so, too. For the movie as well.

2016-12-01 23:42 GMT+01:00 Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>:

> here, for To the Lighthouse, I think the older definition that Laura and
> protomen referred to
> is Woolf's.
>
> On Thu, Dec 1, 2016 at 4:23 PM, Becky Lindroos <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> wrote:
>
>> Yes - the second definition because this book was published in 1927 and
>> the first meaning  wouldn’t have been in Woolf’s mind at that point even if
>> it is that most common definition now.  I think if she’s written it after
>> 1945 or so she wouldn’t have even used the word.  She wold have said ‘burnt
>> offering to God’ or something.   It never would have caused a jolt in the
>> reader until after that time.
>>
>> The word was first used in connection with the German Nazi regime in 1942
>> - prior to that it had been used by Churchill to describe the Armenian
>> Genocide in 1915 but I don’t think “holocaust” got wide usage until into
>> the 1960s or even ‘70s (a TV miniseries).
>>
>> “Holocaust“ comes from the the Greek word holokauston, itself a
>> translation of the Hebrew olah, meaning “completely burnt offering to God,”
>> implying that Jews and other “undesirables” murdered during World War II
>> were a sacrifice to God.
>>
>> Becky
>>
>> > On Dec 1, 2016, at 9:43 AM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
>> >
>> > Neither the writers nor the characters were Jewish, so I doubt the
>> second definition. I think the term is used in its original etymology, as a
>> large, all-consuming fire.
>> >
>> > Laura
>> >
>> > Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID
>> >
>> >
>> > Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > Given when the line was written (by Donald Ogden Stewart) it's probably
>> the second meaning:
>> >
>> > noun
>> > 1 destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire
>> or nuclear war: a nuclear holocaust | the threat of imminent holocaust.
>> > • (the Holocaust) the mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime
>> during the period 1941–45. More than 6 million European Jews, as well as
>> members of other persecuted groups, such as gypsies and homosexuals, were
>> murdered at concentration camps such as Auschwitz.
>> > 2 historical a Jewish sacrificial offering that is burned completely on
>> an altar.
>> >
>> > and not so jarring.
>> >
>> > 2016-12-01 17:31 GMT+01:00 kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com
>> >:
>> > It calls to mind The Philadelphia Story (1940 ), where a drunken Jimmy
>> Stewart gushes romantically to Katherine Hepburn that when he looks in her
>> eyes he sees  "... holocausts ...". Always jarring, given when the line was
>> spoken.
>> >
>> > Laura
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID
>> >
>> >
>> > Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > published in 1927, Ms Woolf has a character who thinks
>> > dramatically, shall we say, use this word to describe a
>> > major disaster that does not happen regarding her husband
>> > and a situation....."not a holocaust" she says to herself.....
>> >
>> > Where it also does not contain the burning/ burnt offering
>> > major meaning of the word long before the historic Holocaust
>> > but is used as Pynchon does in GR, I believe. (along with the
>> > established 'burning' meaning but not directly alluding to the
>> Holocaust,
>> > I also think I remember, without looking anything up. )
>> >
>> >
>>
>> Becky
>> https://beckylindroos.wordpress.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20161201/14a14cc9/attachment.html>