{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/6741", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 6741, "subject": "Short Story 24: The Island of Doctor Death and Other\n\tStories", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "2015-04-26T20:25:41+00:00", "last": "2015-04-26T20:33:51+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Stephen Hoy", "address": "stephenhoy15 at gmail.com" }, "date": "2015-04-26T20:25:41+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 24: The Island of Doctor Death and Other\n\tStories", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Marc\n\nI'd like to re-visit something from The Island of Doctor Death and Other\nStories. You explored the onomastics of Tackman Babcock to connect Tackman\nto Talar, relying on the German Tacke = bough and Armenian Talar =\nevergreen. I'm with you on Talar, but I have a different take on Tackman.\n\n'Tackman' was used in Scotland and the north of England to describe a\nlease-holder or farmer. A tack is what we now call a lease on property.\nTack in this sense derives from Old Norse taka meaning 'take;' because the\ntackman shared in the annual take of the property. The tackman was the\nnatural successor to the bondsman or villain, who in turn was preceded by\nthe serf or slave. See for example \"History of the Tack or Lease\n\"\nin The Scots Magazine (Feb 1803).\n\nI am less certain of the etymology of Babcock--one source suggests it\nemerges from Babb-, a shortened form of Bartholomew or Barbara, plus cock,\na generic diminutive originally used to depict a strutting (cocksure)\nyouth. This suggests an unrefined juvenile.\n\nIn the context of allusions to The Island of Dr. Moreau through the\nLemurian Talar (and perhaps also to the Silent Planet trilogy of C.S. Lewis\nthrough \"Captain Ransom\"), I sense a theme of a maturing\ncivilization--humankind progressing from serf to villain to tackman. For\nare we not men?\n\n\nNone of this takes away from Tack as 'bough'--although Tack as 'twig' seems\nmore apt than bough, because according to the old saw, as a twig is bent,\nso goes the bough." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Marc Aramini", "address": "marcaramini at gmail.com" }, "date": "2015-04-26T20:33:51+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Short Story 24: The Island of Doctor Death and Other\n\tStories", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Thanks Stephen! I like it - at that point in my write-ups, I honestly\nwasn't thinking too much about the names, and instead focusing primarily on\nnarrative gaps. Maturation is definitely one of the key themes of the story\n... (though when he talks to Doctor Death, Tackman does not \"idealize\"\nhimself and see himself grown as he does with Ransom - but perhaps this is\nmore mature than thinking yourself something you are not.)" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Sun, Apr 26, 2015 at 1:25 PM, Stephen Hoy wrote:\nMarc\n\nI'd like to re-visit something from The Island of Doctor Death and Other\nStories. You explored the onomastics of Tackman Babcock to connect Tackman\nto Talar, relying on the German Tacke = bough and Armenian Talar =\nevergreen. I'm with you on Talar, but I have a different take on Tackman.\n\n'Tackman' was used in Scotland and the north of England to describe a\nlease-holder or farmer. A tack is what we now call a lease on property.\nTack in this sense derives from Old Norse taka meaning 'take;' because\nthe tackman shared in the annual take of the property. The tackman was the\nnatural successor to the bondsman or villain, who in turn was preceded by\nthe serf or slave. See for example \"History of the Tack or Lease\n\"\nin The Scots Magazine (Feb 1803).\n\nI am less certain of the etymology of Babcock--one source suggests it\nemerges from Babb-, a shortened form of Bartholomew or Barbara, plus cock,\na generic diminutive originally used to depict a strutting (cocksure)\nyouth. This suggests an unrefined juvenile.\n\nIn the context of allusions to The Island of Dr. Moreau through the\nLemurian Talar (and perhaps also to the Silent Planet trilogy of C.S. Lewis\nthrough \"Captain Ransom\"), I sense a theme of a maturing\ncivilization--humankind progressing from serf to villain to tackman. For\nare we not men?\n\n\nNone of this takes away from Tack as 'bough'--although Tack as 'twig'\nseems more apt than bough, because according to the old saw, as a twig is\nbent, so goes the bough.\n\n_______________________________________________" } ] } ] }