The Guild's Revolutionary

Jeff Wilson · 24 Nov 2009, 19:06 · from 2009-November.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:06:57 -0600
Subject: (urth) The Guild's Revolutionary
In-Reply-To: <A4383D1B-90F2-479E-9841-C1C497ABD521 at io.com>
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	<A4383D1B-90F2-479E-9841-C1C497ABD521 at io.com>
Message-ID: <4B0C2ED1.1070605 at io.com>

Adam Thornton wrote:
> On Nov 24, 2009, at 1:56 AM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
> 
>> Adam Thornton wrote:
>>> On Nov 23, 2009, at 5:30 AM, Jeff Wilson wrote:
>>>> It's less of a pun than a Dantean contrapasso, I would say.
>>> Potato/dried tuber.
>>> Adam
>> Goodness, is it my turn in the barrel again already?
>>
>> I'm not sure what you mean by that answer, could you please explain ti at greater length, Adam?
> 
> Oh, all right, if you insist.
> 
> I started from "potato/po-tah-toe", which is to say, one man's pun is another's Dantean contrapasso.

Oh, that I agree with. "The Revolutionary" is a pun on the part of 
whoever on Urth gave it that name, while at the functional level it is a 
contrapasso. The author chooses both, but the device of putting the pun 
in the chracters' mouths leaves the work with more dignity than if it 
were a third person narrator cracking wise.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
< http://ieeetamut.org >

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