"'Figgered we'd joke after lunch...But w'y not 'fore an' after?'" (VIII, p. 83)
In SM Stirling's The Desert And The Blade, Mackenzies chuckle at a reference to a sporting-goods store because sporting has acquired a different meaning.
Anderson's "A Tragedy of Errors" is all about changes of meanings. Would it be possible to write a story in which nearly every word had changed its meaning to comical effect, obliging the reader to translate back into the regular meanings to understand the text? I once read a humorous comic strip in which the words were written as spoken in a particular American accent, thus again changing their meanings. Unfortunately, the only example that I can remember is that "the Lord" became "the Lowered."
(Another "Includes Bonus Stories" edition. See here.)
11 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Now that's interesting, the way the word "joke" changed its meaning so drastically! I wonder how that could have happened? But, I certainly do agree that words can or will change meanings as time passes.
I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you meant by "Bonus Stories" editions. Do you mean how some books, esp. paperbacks, might include at the back as teasers a chapter from a forthcoming book by the same author?
Sean
Sean:
Sometimes a new edition of some novel or anthology will include one or more short stories, not just previews, that weren't in earlier editions, despite keeping the earlier title for the book. For instance, David Drake's original collection of *Hammer's Slammers* stories had seven stories, plus fictional essays providing background information. In 1989 or thereabouts, an edition of *Hammer's Slammers* came out including an EIGHTH story, "The Tank Lords."
It's not a practice I regard highly, since it means if you're a reader of that series and want to possess a copy of the new material, you need to buy a book in which ALMOST every story is one you already own. Wasteful, that.
Sean,
I just meant that it says it on the cover.
Paul.
By the way, "sporting" had an erotic alternate meaning in English through the 19th century.
Kaor, DAVID!
Another way of looking at it is that collections of stories by the same author and dealing with the same background or "future history" becomes more COMPLETE as new stories sharing that background were added. That's exactly what happened with Poul Anderson's Time Patrol stories. The first collection, GUARDIANS OF TIME, had only four stories. The collecting of these stories meant later collections repeatedly had the original four along with new stories. Wasteful, maybe, but it seems natural to me!
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Then I don't understand what it means. My copy of THERE WILL BE TIME, going back more than forty years, has no new or added material.
Sean
Dear Mr. Stirling,
So "Sporting Goods Store" sounded like what an "adult bookstore" means to us!
Sean
More "Store For Exotic Sex Toys".
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Ha! That too! (Smiles wryly)
Sean
Sean,
But the edition with bonus stories is more recent.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I have one example of that: a special 50th anniversary edition of THE HIGH CRUSADE included not only prefatory comments by friends and family members of Anderson, but also the short story sequel "Quest."
Happy New Year! Sean
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