Riddle Me This

Exactly how old is our young, nameless narrator supposed to be?

I feel this question is begging to be asked. First he can’t go to sleep without getting tucked in and now he drops this nugget on us:

“Above all else I loved [Bergotte’s] philosophy, I had pledged myself to it for life. It made me impatient to reach the age when I would secondary school and enroll in the class called Philosophy.”

I’m not saying it’s impossible that our young narrator responded so viscerally to the philosophy of an artist. Why at that age (I am guessing 8, by the way) I too was heavily influenced by an philosophical artiste that was mold breaking.

His use of meter and rhyme, stirring imagery, vivid characterization, complex language. All that, and just like me he “liked to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas.”

Yes, I too was deeply influenced by the troubadour of childhood, Raffi. Although come to think of it, he didn’t make me look forward to secondary school, but he did make look forward to snack time. (What can I say, I really like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas.)

So maybe, it’s not the same thing after all.

Justin

Landlubberly

Justin, my dear twin, once again you are re-writing history (other (in)famous Justin history re-writes: the bubble blowing contest in which I schooled you, your insistence in believing that space aliens caused the fall of the Berlin Wall).  In your last post you quoted a conversation we had recently, here’s the tail end…

Justin: Super-Duper.
Jon: Yup, yup, yup.

I believe that  shortly after the aforementioned “yup, yup, yup” I went on to discuss my philosophy of art and love (here’s a reminder…they both include lots of glitter) and you ended the conversation with a monologue on the purpose of a young poet in the cornfields of Iowa (you, twin, can make the sestina culturally relevant again!).

Pretty deep…I think we’d fit in mighty nice on that ship.

My post today is focused on Porter’s use (or abuse) of the word landlubber (and its (much) lesser used proverb cousin “landlubberly”).  When I first encountered this word I thought to myself, “Interesting use of a little known word, Miss Porter.”  But she keeps using it…here’s an example:

News dispatches were rather nautical in character and the movements of ships unknown to landlubbers were thought worth mentioning…

…and now I’m pretty sure that Katherine Anne Porter is a pirate.

Argh!  I wonder if she’ll make some walk the plank (matey).

Well I’m off,

Jon