Purple

[Phil Walsh]

In a brief interlude early in chapter three of The Confidence-Man, we meet "a purple-faced drover" as he is "putting his large purple hand on the cripple's bushy wool." Does anyone want to speculate on the significance of the color purple here?

Thanks for any thoughts,

Phil Walsh

[Stephen Hoy]

I think papal purple, aligning with drover & wool, evokes a flock of sheep.

---

From: Phil Walsh
Sent: ‎8/‎17/‎2016 11:13 PM
To: ishmailites@googlegroups com
Subject: Purple

In a brief interlude early in chapter three of The Confidence-Man, we meet "a purple-faced drover" as he is "putting his large purple hand on the cripple's bushy wool." Does anyone want to speculate on the significance of the color purple here?

Thanks for any thoughts,

Phil Walsh

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[Phil Walsh]

Thanks. It's an interesting little passage. Entirely self-contained. No parts of it appear anywhere else in the chapter--not the drover, not the name "Black Guinea," not the color purple, etc. It feels as though it was (or at least certainly could have been) inserted after the rest of the chapter was already finished. Don't see yet what it's there for.

--Phil

[Ffrangcon Lewis]

Hello all,

                 It is a curious expression, isn't it?  The notion of papal purple people is impressive if slightly vertiginous, but, if you'll forgive a moment's levity, perhaps I could say that in my location, drovers were very significant people who would escort hapless livestock on foot from West Wales to London. Rather like cowboys, they were probably prone to thirst, and some might easily have developed non-papal complexions, especially on a Saturday night on arrival at their destination.

Cheers,

Ffrangcon Lewis

On Sunday, August 21, 2016 4:25 AM, Phil Walsh <pj...@netins.net> wrote:

Thanks. It's an interesting little passage. Entirely self-contained. No parts of it appear anywhere else in the chapter--not the drover, not the name "Black Guinea," not the color purple, etc. It feels as though it was (or at least certainly could have been) inserted after the rest of the chapter was already finished. Don't see yet what it's there for.

--Phil

On August 20, 2016, at 1:53 PM, Stephen Hoy <stephe...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think papal purple, aligning with drover & wool, evokes a flock of sheep.

---

From: Phil Walsh
Sent: ‎8/‎17/‎2016 11:13 PM

To: mailto:ishma...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Purple

In a brief interlude early in chapter three of The Confidence-Man, we meet "a purple-faced drover" as he is "putting his large purple hand on the cripple's bushy wool." Does anyone want to speculate on the significance of the color purple here?

Thanks for any thoughts,

Phil Walsh

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[Ros’ Haruo]

A floating pericope, like the Woman Taken in Adultery in John 8 (or elsewhere)? (The passage in its extraneousness, not the color purple, which may be prophetic.

Leland Bryant Ross aka Ros' Haruo (呂須•春男)
Delegito en Seattle, Universala Esperanto-Asocio
My Hymn Blog | Mia Himna Blogo — The Seattle Esperanto Society
Sankta Harmonio (formnotacia libro plurlingva) — Biblioteko Culbert

[Phil Walsh]

Yes; the purple-faced drover puts me in mind of Turkey the scrivener.

On August 21, 2016, at 8:41 AM, 'Ffrangcon Lewis' via Ishmailites <ishma...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Hello all,

                 It is a curious expression, isn't it?  The notion of papal purple people is impressive if slightly vertiginous, but, if you'll forgive a moment's levity, perhaps I could say that in my location, drovers were very significant people who would escort hapless livestock on foot from West Wales to London. Rather like cowboys, they were probably prone to thirst, and some might easily have developed non-papal complexions, especially on a Saturday night on arrival at their destination.

Cheers,

Ffrangcon Lewis

On Sunday, August 21, 2016 4:25 AM, Phil Walsh <pj...@netins.net> wrote:

Thanks. It's an interesting little passage. Entirely self-contained. No parts of it appear anywhere else in the chapter--not the drover, not the name "Black Guinea," not the color purple, etc. It feels as though it was (or at least certainly could have been) inserted after the rest of the chapter was already finished. Don't see yet what it's there for.

--Phil

On August 20, 2016, at 1:53 PM, Stephen Hoy <stephe...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think papal purple, aligning with drover & wool, evokes a flock of sheep.

[Stephen Hoy]

If we take a hand-on-brow from the purple-faced drover as a stand-in for a blessing from a shepherd of the church (whether Pope, Bishop, Pastor, or Elder), we perceive a fine sense of irony in the answer to the question: "And who is your master, Guinea?"  

Whether Black Guinea represents an incarnate deity or a polled satan, the answer would be the same:

"Oh, sir, I am der dog widout massa."

[Phil Walsh]

The whole passage is shot-through with religious imagery, and at multiple levels, isn't it.

[Ffrangcon Lewis]

This sounds persuasive to me, especially the point about the 'doubloon' answer offered by Black Guinea.

Ffrangcon Lewis