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Mark then told Goines he’d send him a copy of Philip Roth’s novel Nemesis, which was more like it for Mark. Goines googled Roth’s novel and learned it was about a polio epidemic in the summer of 1944. Ah, so Mark’s suggestion had to do with the coronavirus pandemic. Goines looked up Lord Jim. Hmm, the plot didn’t seem familiar, and there was no mention of an epidemic; it was the tale of a ship crew and its captain abandoning their ship with passengers aboard because they feared it was going to sink. Did Mark intend a comparison of Trump to the captain?
Mark wouldn’t answer that question.
Goines did a deeper search and consulted Wikipedia’s disambiguation page for “nemesis.” The list it proffered was far longer than any he had seen, starting with the “Greek mythological spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris.” There was also the “proposed dwarf star or brown dwarf in Sun’s extreme outer orbit.” And “an asteroid of the main belt.” And 26 “fictional entities,” 5 films, 6 games, 17 works of literature (including those by Asimov, Christie, and Roth), 19 music-related items (for groups and labels, albums and EPs, and songs), 4 television series, 2 defense and military entities, 4 ships, 3 transport vehicles, and 6 “other uses” (including 2 roller coasters). Divine retribution for hubris seemed to be epidemic in its proportions.
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You wrote “Did Mark intend a comparison of Trump to the captain?” In your internal questioning of “Mark’s intentions” for you, it seems to me that it would not have to be a comparison of Trump. It could just as easily be Pelosi or Schiff? I don’t know...and quite frankly, Scarlet....
ReplyDeleteAlso, something that has always bewildered me about a habit it seems is strikingly more American than I’ve ever been used to in other cultures. And that is this...Why do folks always put their main focus on “what they think someone is really saying”? Why do folks seem incapable of dealing only with what was said? And if there are any questions about it, then why not ASK what they mean? And go from there to clarifying. It is an American societal habit that irritates me somewhat until I realize that the bigger problem is probably with ME, and not with them.
As I’ve explained to you before, English is my second language, and I am not always precise or say things in the sentence structure/order Americans are used to hearing them. For that reason my statements have been misconstrued many times to my detriment. BUT is it only me? Or is it also the other person’s idea of what they think I meant (which is something THEY made up in their own minds)? More than likely both.
First, Vic, Thank you for commenting on this Goines vignette – on any Goines vignette. I get far fewer comments on them than I would like for this series that means a very great deal to me.
DeleteOn your first comment, about Goines’ wondering whether Mark intended a comparison of Trump to the captain in Joseph Conrad’s novel Lord Jim. Goines and Mark have shared many exchanges, and a few of them have been about Trump, quite enough for Goines to know what Mark thinks of our President. Goines is confident that if Mark meant a comparison of the captain with anyone (in the context of contagion in which Mark suggested that Goines read a novel titled Nemesis - Philip Roth’s, as it turned out) it would almost certainly be Trump (and not anyone in the Democratic Party). But, as you implied by partially quoting Rhett from Gone with the Wind, you don’t give a damn anyway. Which, of course, leaves me wondering why you made a space for mentioning Pelosi and Schiff. Do you approve of Trump and Associates’ “handling” of the coronavirus epidemic?
In the rest of your comment you demonstrate that you and Goines share his trait of thinking a great deal about intentions and meanings and motives and self-questioning. That’s much of what “Goines is all about.”
Oh shit. And here is where my inability to “read between the lines and figure out what someone is really saying” lets me down. I have been baited and hooked. Well, I refuse to be reeled in other than to say, I DON'T AGREE WITH WHAT ANYONE IN WASHINGTON HAS DONE RELATED TO THE VIRUS. It is certainly not ONE person’s fault. In the words of Spock, “Captain, that is not logical.” Other than that, I shut my mouth.
DeleteHa, great fun, trying to figure out who did the baiting and reeling! Right, let’s BOTH shut our mouths on this particular (heretofore innocent) Goines vignette.
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