[A] Latin phrase in Jingo

[Jennie Lees]

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The Lain phrase in my signed copy of Jingo,

AB HOC POSSUM VIDERE DOMUM TUUM

is grammatically OK, *but* in Latin (this is a general, invariable rule) the
main verb, here "possum" - I am able - would be placed at the end of the
sentence. So in perfect Lain, this statement should actually be:

Ab hoc videre domum tuum possum

or similar - notice the assonance of the 'um' sound, making it hollow and
foreboding.

Jennie

(I should know because I've just got a 6th Form scholarship with Latin and
Maths)
--
'quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes'
'Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when bearing gifts'
Vergil, Aeneid

[Corinne Brooks]

In article <66c5bd$m0o$1...@library.lspace.org>, Jennie Lees
<le...@mistral.co.uk> writes

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>(I should know because I've just got a 6th Form scholarship with Latin and
>Maths)
>--
>'quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes'
>'Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when bearing gifts'
>Vergil, Aeneid
>
>

Wasn't that Virgil when I was at school.
--
Angua - the only werewolf who loves nibbling a Carrot

www.quizlady.demon.co.uk

[Jos Dingjan]

Jennie Lees wrote:
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> The Lain phrase in my signed copy of Jingo,
>
> AB HOC POSSUM VIDERE DOMUM TUUM
>

<snip>

Does anyone else feel that Pterry's been doing too much explaining in
Jingo? I mean, he doesn't let the readers puzzle on all the latin
phrases, he just gives the translation. Bad move, if y'ask me, 's not
half as much fun as the earlier books...

TTFN, Jos
--
APPLIED PHYSICS is an anagram of HAPPY DISCIPLES

AFP/ABP faqs at http://www.lspace.org/ or at ftp://ftp.lspace.org/pub/

[Hamlet Haegarsson]

Jos Dingjan wrote:

> Does anyone else feel that Pterry's been doing too much explaining in
> Jingo? I mean, he doesn't let the readers puzzle on all the latin
> phrases, he just gives the translation. Bad move, if y'ask me, 's not
> half as much fun as the earlier books...

If you don't have a lexicon there's not much (or OTAH an infinite amount
of) puzzeling you can do...

>--
> APPLIED PHYSICS is an anagram of HAPPY DISCIPLES

Now that's an accident if I ever saw one! (No offense meant)

--
Hamlet (no relation to Denmark)

[Victoria Martin]

Spoilers.....

On Mon, 8 Dec 1997, Jos Dingjan wrote:

>
> Does anyone else feel that Pterry's been doing too much explaining in
> Jingo? I mean, he doesn't let the readers puzzle on all the latin
> phrases, he just gives the translation. Bad move, if y'ask me, 's not
> half as much fun as the earlier books...
>

yes, and we get an unusually clumsy narrative aside explaining carefully
exactly why the disorganiser is screwing up his appointments and the
implications this has for the plot - all that stuff about a pebble
getting to know what its destiny might have been. I was very surprised by
this, not least because Pterry used a very similar plot device in L&L
(Granny Weatherwax thinking she was going to die because that was what
happened on a different timeline) but there he didn't feel the need to
provide a separate explanation for the reader, it was enough for Granny
to figure it out for herself.

Victoria