tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post8502633150925039480..comments2024-02-25T01:48:45.848-07:00Comments on Mr. Center's Wall: East of Eden XVII -- chapt16: The Golden Man with the Goat's EyesJoseph Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00090686611405364311noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-65726358364978497582010-10-23T08:49:40.114-06:002010-10-23T08:49:40.114-06:00I think poor Samuel just needs the confirmation fr...I think poor Samuel just needs the confirmation from his wife. He's too nice to permit himself to think evil of someone without concrete proof.Joseph Centerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00090686611405364311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-81940980930577349742010-10-22T23:27:43.720-06:002010-10-22T23:27:43.720-06:00Alright, I finished this one. One more to go befo...Alright, I finished this one. One more to go before I can go to sleep. <br /><br />On the golden man-Cathy question: I think one of Cathy's many great assets (at least great in the sense of useful in lying) is that she is able to put herself in a position of apparent sympathy. Every one of the stories that she tells involves her somehow being a victim. When she shows up at the Trasks' house in Connecticut, she is beaten up. She wants to kill the baby because she has epilepsy. She can't talk to the sheriff because her memory is gone. She needs a job as a prostitute to pay the mortgage. Even back in the trick that she played on the boys, she made it seem as though she were being raped. Now, she is a pregnant young woman in a foreign land. What could be more vulnerable? The result is that you start to feel guilty for thinking negative thoughts about her. I think that if Cathy were in a less vulnerable position, people's sympathy toward her would not outweigh their suspicion.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11708022607046379611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-78637655372660630212010-10-22T13:50:35.592-06:002010-10-22T13:50:35.592-06:00It's really a great language. Among the ones ...It's really a great language. Among the ones that I know, Spanish is prettier, but German is sillier. I would make a case that English is useful because its grammar is so easy, and maybe that's a good thing since it has become such an international language. German is by far the hardest of the 3. Formulating each sentence is like fitting pieces of a puzzle together.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11708022607046379611noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-57722658846762397692010-10-21T21:39:56.566-06:002010-10-21T21:39:56.566-06:00The rest are less questions than my amused observa...The rest are less questions than my amused observations of this silly-so-serious woman. And that's great to know about the capitalization thing. I knew about the literality and the constant portmanteaus, though otherwise I know very little.Joseph Centerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00090686611405364311noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-395948500312534280.post-51976372293148038172010-10-21T20:24:15.645-06:002010-10-21T20:24:15.645-06:00HA! I know German.
The reason that Weltschmerz...HA! I know German. <br /><br />The reason that Weltschmerz is capitalized is that all German nouns are capitalized. I kind of like it. It takes away a lot of the English noun ambiguity. Your definition is correct. German is maybe the most literal language I know. English would never think to just combine two concepts and make it one word to describe something.<br /><br />I'll get to the rest of the questions when I get caught up, but this just caught my eye.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11708022607046379611noreply@blogger.com