Footfall: Question about a quote/reference in it...
Brent Michael Krupp
I just re-read Footfall (it's been years since the first time, but ID4
reminded me of it). There is a line that is repeated a few times and seems
pretty obviously to be a reference to something... but I'm too dense to
figure it out. In chapter 41, Rogachev says, "at last my arm is whole again".
Earlier on, the snouts see a similar line in a movie they stole from Kansas
(I think). Where is this line from?
Thanks in advance!
Brent Krupp (flet...@u.washington.edu)
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~fletcher/
"In the faculty of writing nonsense, stupidity is no match for genius."
-- Walter Bagehot
Russell McMahon
In article <4rqag4$3...@nntp4.u.washington.edu>, flet...@u.washington.edu
says...
I've tried EVERY source I can think of in NZ to no avail.
I've seen the scene on TV some years ago (TV on as I passed through room, 2
people discussing the scene) and had filed the quote away in my mind for
occasional use but had never thought it would be quoted in a book.
As I recall: A barber who is insane has been released from prison - for murder
I think. His lanlady is in love with him and has kept his belongings for him.
He unwraps his cutthroat razors and, totally oblivious to the woman's feelings
for him, holds the razor up to the light and proclaims " At last, my arm is
whole again". He is totally entranced with his "toys".
{No doubt someone will tel me that my recollections are totally wrong - fair
enough - but please tell me the title as well!!!}
Russell McMahon: ru...@ihug.co.nz
"I think, therefore you are" How come I didn't think of that???
Brent Michael Krupp
On Thu, 25 Jul 1996, Russell McMahon wrote:
> When you find out please tell me too!
Some kind soul already answered me in email, but here's the answer
for anyone else who wants it:
====begin forward====
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 18:04:37 -0500 (CDT)
From: James Mcadams <jmca...@interaccess.com>
To: flet...@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: Footfall: Question about a quote/reference in it...
Newsgroups: alt.books.larry-niven
I just had the privilege to watch the source of the quote.
"Sweeney Todd - the Demon Barber of Fleet Street". After umpteen
years in exile he is reunited with his beloved master-crafted
straight razors, and screams "at last my arm is whole again" at
the top of his lungs.
Suffice to say, this is a foreshadowing moment. :-)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim McAdams | Do,
jmca...@interaccess.com | or Do Not.
708-859-6902 | There is no "Try". - Yoda
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====end forward====
'Fumi' Fumitaka Hayashi
On Fri, 26 Jul 1996 b...@ll.mit.edu wrote:
> > As I recall: A barber who is insane has been released from prison - for murder
> > I think. His lanlady is in love with him and has kept his belongings for him.
> > He unwraps his cutthroat razors and, totally oblivious to the woman's feelings
> > for him, holds the razor up to the light and proclaims " At last, my arm is
> > whole again". He is totally entranced with his "toys".
> > {No doubt someone will tel me that my recollections are totally wrong - fair
> > enough - but please tell me the title as well!!!}
>
> "At Last! My arm is complete again!" - Sweeny Todd, the Demon Barber of
> Fleet Street.
>
> Musical by Stephen Sondheim.
> Broadway cast:Sweeny Todd - Len Cariou; Mrs. Lovett (the landlady)
> Angela Landsbury
>
> Barber in (approximately) Victorian England (or older) is deported to
> Australia by the local
> Judge on trumped up charges so that the Judge can seduce his wife.
> After a number of years,
> he escapes and returns to England to discover that his wife is dead and
> his infant daughter is
> now grown up and is the ward of the judge, who wants to marry her. The
> wife took her own life
> after the judge and the judge's beadle got her drunk and raped her. He
> adopts a phoney name
> (Sweeney Todd) and attempts to get revenge, with the help of his former
> landlady, Mrs. Lovett,
> who unbeknownst to ST, has the hots for him. She has kept his silver
> razor set all these years
> in case he returned.
>
> The sailor that helped him escape (who does not know who he is) falls in
> love with the daughter
> and tries to help her to escape. He barges into the barber shop just as
> ST is about to cut the
> throat of the judge, whom he has lured into the shop to get a shave.
> The judge hears the sailors
> plan to rescue the daughter from him, and runs out of the shop, vowing
> that the sailor shall not
> succeed, and vowing never to return to the shop since ST is the friend
> to the sailor. ST realizes
> that he may never get another chance to get his revenge, and vows that
> he will kill over and over
> until he finally does. Meanwhile, he has killed a huckster that
> recognized him and threatened to
> expose him. Mrs. Lovett, who owns a little meat pie shop, thinks that
> the ideal way to get rid
> of this and subsequent bodies, is to cook them into the pies. Before
> this she could not afford
> to put meat into her meat pies and was very poor. The new meat pies are
> a success and are the
> toast of London.
>
> By the end of the play, pretty much everyone is dead, except the sailor
> and the daughter, who
> live happily ever after.
>
>
Is it me, or is this gross?
Murder, She Wrote, indeed!
>
>
>
> --
> Brian Utterback
> Mit Lincoln Labs
> (617) 981-4542
> b...@ll.mit.edu
>
>
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
I Fumitaka Hayashi I
I <hay...@homer.u.washington.edu> I
I Dept. of Immunology I
I University of Washington I
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
