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Sep. 7th, 2004 07:03 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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indeedsir_backupRight, um...I don't have access to a biography of Wodehouse right off-hand, and I haven't been able to pick up this information via the redoubtable Google. However, I'm anxious to know.
Does anyone know how much Plum studied classics in school? Besides the fact that he seems to have no shortage of mythology references, I keep seeing classical constructions in his writing -- particularly the transferred epithet (putting an adjective where it doesn't technically belong, like "...after I had sucked down a thoughtful cup tea"). Wodehouse is the only person I've ever seen pull this off in English, so I'm curious.
I'm probably just being a dork who sees classical references everywhere, but I thought I'd ask anyway.
I think it's been pointed out here already that an awful lot of Wodehouse's myth references have to do with homosexuality...though admittedly you can't swing a dead cat in Greek mythology without hitting some homosexuality, I'll see what I can do about a list. Because hey, lists are an excellent waste of time.
Does anyone know how much Plum studied classics in school? Besides the fact that he seems to have no shortage of mythology references, I keep seeing classical constructions in his writing -- particularly the transferred epithet (putting an adjective where it doesn't technically belong, like "...after I had sucked down a thoughtful cup tea"). Wodehouse is the only person I've ever seen pull this off in English, so I'm curious.
I'm probably just being a dork who sees classical references everywhere, but I thought I'd ask anyway.
I think it's been pointed out here already that an awful lot of Wodehouse's myth references have to do with homosexuality...though admittedly you can't swing a dead cat in Greek mythology without hitting some homosexuality, I'll see what I can do about a list. Because hey, lists are an excellent waste of time.
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Date: 2004-09-09 12:48 am (UTC)Does he really say that? with out the "of" in front of "tea"? How odd!
And why are you swinging dead cats in greek mythology? *G*
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Date: 2004-09-09 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-09 01:05 pm (UTC)Which are nothing to the way that Jack Aubrey mangles everyday proverbs - *L*! I'll have to make a list of them some day. And, when some of your other obsessions have quieted down, you must dive into Master and Commander. It would warm your little time-traveling heart!
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Date: 2004-09-09 05:22 pm (UTC)Really, this is becoming annoying. Every time I return from a visit to the library, you come up with something to research. I insist you improve your timing.
*hrmphs and resolves to go back tomorrow*
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Date: 2004-09-10 05:23 pm (UTC)*hails you on AIM*
"His eyes widened and an astonished piece of toast fell from his grasp."
Date: 2004-09-13 10:10 am (UTC)I'm never going to be able to just read the books anymore.
Re: "His eyes widened and an astonished piece of toast fell from his grasp."
Date: 2004-09-13 09:49 pm (UTC)Re: "His eyes widened and an astonished piece of toast fell from his grasp."
Date: 2004-09-13 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-17 12:39 pm (UTC)From an article written by Stephen Fry:
"Example serves better than description. Let me throw up some more random nuggets. Particular to Wodehouse are the transferred epithets: "I lit a rather pleased cigarette", or, "I pronged a moody forkful of eggs and b". Characteristic, too, are the sublimely hyperbolic similes: "Roderick Spode. Big chap with a small moustache and the sort of eye that can open an oyster at sixty paces", or, "The stationmaster's whiskers are of a Victorian bushiness and give the impression of having been grown under glass"."
^_^