"Le Petit Prince" and Lacan
Tomoyuki Tanaka
1. i noticed that in the title "Le Petit Prince" all the
words begin with capital letters, unlike in most
French book titles i've seen.
but there's the French dictionary "Le Petit Robert".
how unusual is this? please comment.
and before you comment on my capitalization, read
Section 4. What's up with TT's weird capitalization?
in http://www.cs.indiana.edu/hyplan/tanaka/altTTfaq/
2. i'm reading the book "Reading Lacan" by Jane Gallop.
she says that the French dictionary "Le Petit Robert"
quotes Saint-Exupery in defining "nostalgia":
"La nostalgie c'est le desir d'on ne sait quoi."
"Nostalgia is the desire for indefinable something."
is this quote from "Le Petit Prince"? (i doubt it.)
if so, could you tell me where it is in the book?
i have the book in French and English.
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
> D.R.Hofstadter: "alien" "inscrutable" "Oriental mind"
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>> in "Metamagical Themas" (1985) Hofstadter self-righteously
>> preached nonsexist language (word choices, etc) with
>> hypersensitivity.
>>
>> in "Le Ton beau de Marot" (1997) Hofstadter casually makes
>> fun of Asians with the phrases such as
>> "inscrutable" "the Oriental mind" and other outdated
>> (and inherently racist) stereotypes.
>>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
> from Douglas Hofstadter's book "Le Ton beau de Marot" (1997)
>
> "Could it be that the very idea of transculturation
> itself is a Western one, and strikes the Oriental mind
> as alien?" (Page 148)
>
> "By virtue of being overly Oriental, it would be
> extraordinarily disorienting!" (Page 149)
>
> have you read another book that's published in the last 20
> years or so that uses the words like "inscrutable" and "the
> Oriental mind" (or other racist stereotypes) to make fun of
> Asians?
>
> if so, could you let me know?
> i'm esp. interested in books by non-comedians.
>
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>> NYT's review article of Douglas Hofstadter's book "Le
>> Ton beau de Marot"
>> http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/07/20/reviews/970720.20altert.html
>> (Prof. Alter, using lenient language, points out
>> Hofstadter's superficial understanding of literature
>> and translation.)
>>--------------------------------------------------------------------
Xavier Onassis
"Tomoyuki Tanaka" <tan...@web1.calweb.com> wrote in message
news:3a683647$1...@news3.calweb.com...
>
> 1. i noticed that in the title "Le Petit Prince" all the
> words begin with capital letters, unlike in most
> French book titles i've seen.
> but there's the French dictionary "Le Petit Robert".
> how unusual is this? please comment.
A quick glance at my bookshelf shows that the capitalization or
non-capitalization is arbitrary.
For example:
Le Petit Prince
Une Femme
La nostalgie n'est plus ce qu'elle était
La Modification
L'ÉDUCATION SENTIMENTALE
L'éducation sentimentale
--
Xavier Onassis
Tomoyuki Tanaka
hi. thanks for the responses.
btw, "Le Petit Prince" was EXTREMELY popular in Japan,
especially in the Year 2000: TV specials, new edition
published, postcards, etc.
> 1. i noticed that in the title "Le Petit Prince" all the
> words begin with capital letters, unlike in most
> French book titles i've seen.
> (but there's the French dictionary "Le Petit Robert".)
> how unusual is this? please comment.
i looked at some more French book titles, and i think i found
the rule for book titles. the noun after the first "Le/La/Les"
is often capitalized. if "Le/La/Les" is followed by an
adjective and a noun, they are often both capitalized.
> and before you comment on my capitalization, read
> Section 4. What's up with TT's weird capitalization?
> in http://www.cs.indiana.edu/hyplan/tanaka/altTTfaq/
>
>
> 2. i'm reading the book "Reading Lacan" by Jane Gallop.
> she says that the French dictionary "Le Petit Robert"
> quotes Saint-Exupery in defining "nostalgia":
>
> "La nostalgie, c'est le desir d'on ne sait quoi."
>
> "Nostalgia is the desire for indefinable something."
>
> is this quote from "Le Petit Prince"? (i doubt it.)
> if so, could you tell me where it is in the book?
> i have the book in French and English.
i checked http://galeb.etf.bg.ac.yu/mp/mp/pp.html and found
that the word "nostalgie" doesn't apear in "Le Petit Prince".