GR translation: Arab With A Big Greasy Nose

[Mike Jing]

Thanks for the reply, Laura and Mark. I'll keep it in mind.

On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 2:15 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> I did a half-hearted similar search thru Disney images. I think this is the
> best we've ever gotten toward understanding.
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Apr 28, 2017, at 1:03 PM, Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I've searched in vain for any images from  Loonie Tunes available on YouTube
> for an image of someone playing their own nose like a horn. So easy to
> picture, but if it exists, I couldn't find it. Perusing some of Kipling's
> ballads, "beating" sounds like the most likely interpretation of "performing
> on." I don't read any Weissman-style sexual subtext. So if ambiguity isn't
> an option, I'd go for the beating up meaning.
>
> Laura
>
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID
>
>
> Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> According to the well known ballad, the act performed on the native water
> boy would be one of deference and thanksgiving, even if Sam Jaffe wasn't
> wearing boots you could lick or much of anything in the movie. Brown nosing
> comes to mind, Don't remember  if this has already been said, probably I
> don't understand the problem. I know it's difficult to translate stuff based
> on American pop culture.  Anyway, good luck.
>
> But when it comes to slaughter
> You will do your work on water
> And you'll lick the bloomin' boots of 'im that's go it.
>
> Kipling
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 5:34 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks for the reply, Smoke. I'm just grasping at straws here because
>> I can't find a way to translate it with the same kind of ambiguity,
>> but I guess I'll just have to try harder or leave the "to preform on"
>> part out altogether.
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 26, 2017 at 9:27 AM, Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > It doesn't read like 'perform a prank on' to me, exactly.
>> >
>> > Some of the grotesque interpretations seem to possibly make sense, given
>> > the
>> > recurrence of the grotesque throughout the book and in some of the pages
>> > (and verses) leading up to this sentence.
>> >
>> > Though I can imagine a translation that focuses on these possibilities
>> > might
>> > run the risk of over-specifying, choosing one possible meaning of many
>> > and
>> > eliminating others.
>> >
>> > I wonder to what extent the musical sense of performance, as Monte
>> > points
>> > out, is supported by the "all folklore broken down" line. Although this
>> > might also support a more scatological meaning as well.
>> >
>> > Some vagueness: who's doing the performing (PP, using/on the nose, or
>> > the
>> > Arab, on his own nose)?, in what sense is the word on used?
>> >
>> > Also, when you say someone plays a musical instrument, do you ever say
>> > they
>> > perform on it?
>> >
>> > To perform on, to my ear, suggests either a location (e.g. you perform a
>> > musical number on a stage) or that something is a more direct physical
>> > recipient of the performance (performance in this sense seeming to be
>> > either
>> > more technical, as in to perform a medical procedure on someone, or more
>> > euphemistic, as in like to jack off on, or I guess vomit on...)
>> >
>> > I guess you might colloquially describe someone as being on an
>> > instrument,
>> > e.g. "let's give it up for Craig on the keyboard," but it doesn't quite
>> > sound right to me to say, "let's give it up for Craig, who's performing
>> > on
>> > the keyboard."
>> >
>> > On Wed, Apr 26, 2017 at 2:25 AM, Mike Jing
>> > <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Resurrecting this thread yet again on my third pass. I have another
>> >> idea: could "to perform on" simply mean "to perform a prank on"? It
>> >> seems to make sense given the context, with Gary Grant larking in and
>> >> out and so on.
>> >>
>> >> On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 4:19 AM, Mike Jing
>> >> <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> > P14.5-13   In 1935 he had his first episode outside any condition of
>> >> > known sleep—it was during his Kipling Period, beastly Fuzzy-Wuzzies
>> >> > far as eye could see, dracunculiasis and Oriental sore rampant among
>> >> > the troops, no beer for a month, wireless being jammed by other
>> >> > Powers
>> >> > who would be masters of these horrid blacks, God knows why, and all
>> >> > folklore broken down, no Gary Grant larking in and out slipping
>> >> > elephant medicine in the punchbowls out here . .. not even an Arab
>> >> > With A Big Greasy Nose to perform on, as in that wistful classic
>> >> > every
>> >> > tommy’s heard . . .
>> >> >
>> >> > What is this classic with "an Arab With A Big Greasy Nose"?  And what
>> >> > do they want to perform on him?
>> >> -
>> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>> >
>> >
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
>
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l