BEST OF WEEK: Sandman #75
MacPherson, Donald
>Oops. I almost forgot. Gaiman does get special bonus points for getting
>around Vertigo's forbidden word taboo. And by doing it in a way that
>would get him more points in Scrabble. :)
"Forbidden word taboo"? I didn't think ANY words were forbidden
in Vertigo anymore.
Donald MacPherson
Michael Blakeman Cleveland
Nope. There's still at least one (as far as I know anyway). Ennis
frequently refers to the fact in the Preacher letter column.
In the issue, Shakespeare says something to the effect that his daughter
should trap a husband, [paraphrase:] "She should set it with her glance,
and bait it with her quoint." If that's not clear, I'll elaborate further
via email. I just feel kind of exposed out here on Usenet.
Michael C, wonders what the official CDA policy on variant spellings is.
Sean Med
(Michael Blakeman Cleveland) writes:
>In the issue, Shakespeare says something to the effect that his daughter
>should trap a husband, [paraphrase:] "She should set it with her glance,
>and bait it with her quoint." If that's not clear, I'll elaborate
further
>via email. I just feel kind of exposed out here on Usenet.
Yeah, I cou'n't believe it, either.
Sean
Jason A Carlin
: Michael Blakeman Cleveland (clev...@cae.wisc.edu) wrote:
: <snipped some grat reviews: you've convinced me to search out Cowboy Wally>
: : Oops. I almost forgot. Gaiman does get special bonus points for getting
: : around Vertigo's forbidden word taboo. And by doing it in a way that
: : would get him more points in Scrabble. :)
: Out of curiousity, what is the forbidden word? A simple curse, or is it
: something like "DC", "Marvel", or *shudder* "Image"?
Oh bugger, do you mean the tabboo word was the modern translation of
"quoint"?
you may extrapoliate here or on e-mail
Jason
**************************<jca...@uoguelph.ca>******************************
Braveheart wins Best Picture: Lesson? If it's not Scottish, it's crrrrrap!
"The twilight sky glass glowed pink,
the aftertaste of daylight's kiss." --"Belong" J. Carlin
"Nausea, dizziness, sweats..either it's love or I've got malaria."-still me.
**************("It's the stuff that dreams are made of...")******************
Jason A Carlin
<snipped some grat reviews: you've convinced me to search out Cowboy Wally>
: Oops. I almost forgot. Gaiman does get special bonus points for getting
: around Vertigo's forbidden word taboo. And by doing it in a way that
: would get him more points in Scrabble. :)
Out of curiousity, what is the forbidden word? A simple curse, or is it
something like "DC", "Marvel", or *shudder* "Image"?
Jason, who was giddy all last week anticipating LSH #80, and was justly
rewarded.
Sean C
On 3 Apr 1996, Michael Blakeman Cleveland wrote:
> "MacPherson, Donald" <don...@gov.nb.ca> writes:
> >clev...@cae.wisc.edu (Michael Blakeman Cleveland) wrote:
> >
> >>Oops. I almost forgot. Gaiman does get special bonus points for getting
> >>around Vertigo's forbidden word taboo. And by doing it in a way that
> >>would get him more points in Scrabble. :)
> >
> > "Forbidden word taboo"? I didn't think ANY words were forbidden
> >in Vertigo anymore.
>
> Nope. There's still at least one (as far as I know anyway). Ennis
> frequently refers to the fact in the Preacher letter column.
>
> In the issue, Shakespeare says something to the effect that his daughter
> should trap a husband, [paraphrase:] "She should set it with her glance,
> and bait it with her quoint." If that's not clear, I'll elaborate further
> via email. I just feel kind of exposed out here on Usenet.
>
You know, I remember hearing somewhere that the c word is considered the
most offensive single word in the English Language.
Sean C. (also feels a bit exposed on the Usenet)
John Switzer
Sean C <sean...@cs.mcgill.ca> wrote:
>
>You know, I remember hearing somewhere that the c word is considered the
>most offensive single word in the English Language.
>
>Sean C. (also feels a bit exposed on the Usenet)
Conservative?
jswi...@limbaugh.com (who routinely feels a bit exposed on the net)
--
John Switzer | Time travellers, looking for a discrete front man
| for your investments in local time? Call me! I am
jswi...@limbaugh.com | willing to take my cut from parallel investments!
*** Access the Congressional Record at http://thomas.loc.gov ***
Michael Blakeman Cleveland
>Sean C <sean...@cs.mcgill.ca> wrote:
>>
>>You know, I remember hearing somewhere that the c word is considered the
>>most offensive single word in the English Language.
>>
>>Sean C. (also feels a bit exposed on the Usenet)
>
>Conservative?
No thanks; I just ate.
Michael C
Katharine Martin
"MacPherson, Donald" <don...@gov.nb.ca> writes:
>clev...@cae.wisc.edu (Michael Blakeman Cleveland) wrote:
>>>Oops. I almost forgot. Gaiman does get special bonus points for getting
>>>around Vertigo's forbidden word taboo. And by doing it in a way that
>>>would get him more points in Scrabble. :)
>> "Forbidden word taboo"? I didn't think ANY words were forbidden
>>in Vertigo anymore.
>Nope. There's still at least one (as far as I know anyway). Ennis
>frequently refers to the fact in the Preacher letter column.
>In the issue, Shakespeare says something to the effect that his daughter
>should trap a husband, [paraphrase:] "She should set it with her glance,
>and bait it with her quoint." If that's not clear, I'll elaborate further
>via email. I just feel kind of exposed out here on Usenet.
What, vagina, clitoris, or cunt?
-kate, civilly disobedient
--
Kate Martin jul...@haven.boston.ma.us k...@gnu.ai.mit.edu
"Bisexual Barbie: Comes in a package with Skipper and Ken." "Birkenstock
Barbie: Finally, a Barbie doll with horizontal feet and comfortable
sandals. Made from recycled materials." -- Barbies we'd like to see
Katharine Weizel
Katharine Martin <jul...@flash-gordon.haven.boston.ma.us> wrote:
> Michael C (clev...@cae.wisc.edu) wrote:
> "MacPherson, Donald" <don...@gov.nb.ca> writes:
> >clev...@cae.wisc.edu (Michael Blakeman Cleveland) wrote:
>
> >>>around Vertigo's forbidden word taboo. And by doing it in a way that
> >>>would get him more points in Scrabble. :)
>
> >> "Forbidden word taboo"? I didn't think ANY words were forbidden
> >>in Vertigo anymore.
>
> >should trap a husband, [paraphrase:] "She should set it with her glance,
> >and bait it with her quoint." If that's not clear, I'll elaborate further
>
Heh. After looking for a minute. It's clear that the word is cunt.
Variously spelled by Shakespeare, Chaucer, and others as
cunt, quoint, queynt, queynte, quaint, and so on.
Besides the above Gaiman offering, you can hear Hamlet ask Ophelia if he
could lie in her lap, asking her whether she thought he meant "country
manners" (punning on country=commoner etiquette and cuntry=sexual
favors.):
Hamlet: Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
Ophelia: No, my lord.
Ham: I mean my head upon your lap?
Oph: Ay, my lord.
Ham: Do you think I meant country matters?
Oph: I think nothing, my lord.
Ham: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
Oph: What is, my lord?
Ham: No thing.
(HAMLET, III.ii.107-115)
And In Chaucer's Wife of Bath and Miller's Prologues and
tales, there are quite a few references:
Wife: Is it for ye wolde have my queynte allone?
Wy, taak it all! Lo, have it every deel!
(WoBath Pro, 444-445)
Miller: Whil that hir housbonde was at Oseneye
As clerkes be ful subtile and ful queynte,
And prively he caughte hire by the queynte,
And seyde, "Ywis, but if ich have my wille,
For deerne love of thee, lemman, I spille.:
(Miller Tale, 3274-3278)
Of course, it had other meanings. The first queynte in the Miller
passage means "ingenious or clever." Hence a double meaning when later
the quest to win her favors by tricking her husband and a second
admirer is called a "queynte cast" aka a clever plot. :) "Queynte" and
"yqueynte" were used in a different manner to mean "quenched or
extinguished," possibly punning on the "quenching" of one's sexual
passion by the sexual favors obtained from a woman.
Quaint was variously also used to describe an "elegant, pleasing
thing..." which some would argue was a perfect description for the
female nether regious. Quaint and curious were often descriptions for
the female genetalia, which seemed to have amazing and wonderous
properties for "gentlemen" of the age.
kate.
who just finished teaching Hamlet and is now studying Canterbury Tales,
who loves Middle and Renaissance English and the etymology of words,
meanings, spellings, and definitions, and who doesn't give a flying fuck
if you can't say cunt on Usenet. It's academia. Let me see them try.
| Kate the Short - (ka...@cicero.spc.uchicago.edu) - at the U of Chicago |
| I have a web page! (at http://student-www.uchicago.edu/users/keweizel) |
| Keeper of the RAC.MX Read Before Posting and Where Can I Find It? FAQs |
| Patron Saint of rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks, and Really Short Person |
H.
(Katharine Weizel) wrote:
SNIP
> Quaint and curious were often descriptions for
> the female genetalia, which seemed to have amazing and wonderous
> properties for "gentlemen" of the age.
...um... I'd say all ages...
> kate.
> who just finished teaching Hamlet and is now studying Canterbury Tales,
> who loves Middle and Renaissance English and the etymology of words,
> meanings, spellings, and definitions, and who doesn't give a flying fuck
> if you can't say cunt on Usenet. It's academia. Let me see them try.
Vulgarity is seldom obscene when redeemed by wit.
> | Kate the Short - (ka...@cicero.spc.uchicago.edu) - at the U of Chicago |
> | I have a web page! (at http://student-www.uchicago.edu/users/keweizel) |
> | Keeper of the RAC.MX Read Before Posting and Where Can I Find It? FAQs |
> | Patron Saint of rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks, and Really Short Person |
I'll bet you have a mean outside jump shot!
H.
(Who adores words and women, sometimes in that order....)
Michael Blakeman Cleveland
>Katharine Martin <jul...@flash-gordon.haven.boston.ma.us> wrote:
>> Michael C (clev...@cae.wisc.edu) wrote:
>> "MacPherson, Donald" <don...@gov.nb.ca> writes:
>> >clev...@cae.wisc.edu (Michael Blakeman Cleveland) wrote:
>> >>>around Vertigo's forbidden word taboo. And by doing it in a way that
>> >>>would get him more points in Scrabble. :)
>> >> "Forbidden word taboo"? I didn't think ANY words were forbidden
>> >>in Vertigo anymore.
>> >In the issue, Shakespeare says something to the effect that his daughter
>> >should trap a husband, [paraphrase:] "She should set it with her glance,
>> >and bait it with her quoint." If that's not clear, I'll elaborate further
>> What, vagina, clitoris, or cunt?
>Heh. After looking for a minute. It's clear that the word is cunt.
>Variously spelled by Shakespeare, Chaucer, and others as
>cunt, quoint, queynt, queynte, quaint, and so on.
I'm sorry; I really wasn't trying to be elusive; I genuinely thought it
was obvious. Of course, that's because in every PREACHER letter column,
Garth Ennis bemoans the fact that he can't use the word.
And because I took a Chaucer class as an undergrad. There was one time
the professor was reading a passage from one of the Canterbury Tales.
(It may have been "Wife of Bath".) Suddenly she stopped, and said,
"'Quaynt.' I wonder if that's where we get the word 'cunt.'" It's the
type of comment that you remember.
Although in a class of fairly serious English majors (and grad students),
it didn't really get much notice. Not like the time I was in the lecture
for one of my chem eng. labs. The professor was talking about threading
pipe and assembling piping networks, and gave us the advice, "Always
lubricate before you screw." I think everyone spent the rest of the
lecture trying not to burst out laughing.
Michael C
Katharine Martin
ka...@cicero.spc.uchicago.edu (Katharine Weizel) writes:
>Katharine Martin <jul...@flash-gordon.haven.boston.ma.us> wrote:
>>> What, vagina, clitoris, or cunt?
>>Heh. After looking for a minute. It's clear that the word is cunt.
>>Variously spelled by Shakespeare, Chaucer, and others as
>>cunt, quoint, queynt, queynte, quaint, and so on.
>I'm sorry; I really wasn't trying to be elusive; I genuinely thought it
>was obvious. Of course, that's because in every PREACHER letter column,
>Garth Ennis bemoans the fact that he can't use the word.
I don't read Preacher, but actually, I was mostly just blurting the stuff
out to be contrary.
Hm. Does Ennis expand on why he _can't_ use it? It seems that if you can use
any number of other profanities, that specific one is just as usable as any
other.
-kate, has read Chaucer
--
Kate Martin jul...@haven.boston.ma.us k...@gnu.ai.mit.edu
"RAC, now with 100% of your daily recommended dosage of Vitriol! Yummy." Matteo
"It's all true. We are space aliens. I'm amazed that it's taken you so long
to find out."--Sen. Phil Gramm, reeking sarcasm in the Weekly World News.
Sean Med
jul...@flash-gordon.haven.boston.ma.us (Katharine Martin) writes:
>Hm. Does Ennis expand on why he _can't_ use it? It seems that if you can
use
> any number of other profanities, that specific one is just as usable as
any
> other.
I imagine it's because DC says no, and DC writes his checks. But you're
right, it's silly. Is Stuart Moore reading this? Any clues, Stuart?
Sean
christian
literature, from spenser to shakespeare....it is not as vulgar as "the
word" (note that i am hesitant to write it...ah, society)...it is a
street jocularity as described in my norton anthology.
so neil was not just doing some fancy sidestepping...that was the
vocabulary of the time.
christian
--
csta...@mail.sas.upenn.edu
internet + avant garde = http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cstadler
wqhs homepage = http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~wqhs730
Michael Blakeman Cleveland
>it is a street jocularity as described in my norton anthology.
I don't know. My Chaucer professor implied that it was fairly rude.
(And I'd trust her quite a bit further than the Norton people.)
>so neil was not just doing some fancy sidestepping...that was the
>vocabulary of the time.
Actually, I'm not debating this at all. :)
Michael C
christian
it to the man! as if the tempest was an elaborate scheme to use that
word...but i am not trying to pick a fight...
Douglas W Waldron
>>
>>You know, I remember hearing somewhere that the c word is considered the
>>most offensive single word in the English Language.
>>
A little anecdote: I remember about 10 years ago (wasn't 8th grade fun?)
looking up the c word in a dictionary of slang at the local public library.
(Yes, it contained all the bad words, and yes, I did look them all up.)
It was the only word that used an asterisk-vowel substitution, and in the
definition it said that it was required by law to do so. According to
this book, the mere printing of the word in a book, even a dictionary of
slang, constituted publishing obscenities, or something to that effect.
Apparently this law never really caught on until the invention of the
internet.
Doug (careful with that asterisk, Eugene)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Douglas Waldron <>< ATL...@dames.com or dwwa...@starbase.spd.louisville.edu|
| "And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!" |
| --Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* My views and opinions do not represent those of Dames & Moore, Inc.*
Kevin J. Maroney
> Hm. Does Ennis expand on why he _can't_ use it? It seems that if you can use
> any number of other profanities, that specific one is just as usable as any
> other.
I can't remember what Ennis has said about it, but Morrison was quite
clear in an INVISIBLES letter column: Vertigo's editorial staff have
forbidden the word "cunt". I don't know, and don't care to guess,
whether this dictum comes from Berger or someone above her.
I can't remember seeing the word "cocksucker" in any Vertigo title,
although I do remember that in THE SCORE (Piranha), the prostitute
character says, "Hey, I swallow spunk for a living."
--
Kevin J. Maroney | Crossover Technologies | ke...@crossover.com
Games are my entire waking life.
Sledge
Just so you know.
------------------------------
"Kids, don't try this at home. Practice at a friend's
house until you're really good. Then come to us."
-- Jim Rose
GothCode 2.0
GoZZ+ TP(Jt) B14/27Bk cBK(DBR)w+ PL(Pe) V++s M++ ZIn(PuGnCl) C++u a22= n+ b++:
H185 g++T m)EaNoEy(-)@2(# w++T r--BISP D+3! h+(PeNa) s8 k++sRW Rn SsYy N0993n
LcaON++ HdS
Tannhauser
On 6 Apr 1996, Katharine Martin wrote:
>
> Hm. Does Ennis expand on why he _can't_ use it? It seems that if you can use
> any number of other profanities, that specific one is just as usable as any
> other.
>
Isn't "profanity" a lovely term, implying as it does that there
is an equal and opposite subset of sacred words also....as to the
question, every medium requires its own taboos, and the logic of what
they are is entirely ancillary to their presence, imho (as I believe they
say).
Katharine Martin
>Hm. Does Ennis expand on why he _can't_ use it? It seems that if you
>can use any number of other profanities, that specific one is just as
>usable as any other.
> Isn't "profanity" a lovely term, implying as it does that there
>is an equal and opposite subset of sacred words also....
Some people seem to think so.
(and if that were so, wouldn't there be an equal and opposite term for male
and female genital organs? why hasn't anyone told _me_ this? WHY AM I
ALWAYS IN THE DARK!!!?)
Ahem. Pardon me.
>as to the
>question, every medium requires its own taboos, and the logic of what
>they are is entirely ancillary to their presence, imho (as I believe they
>say).
Ah. That is, you have no idea. So nice to have you back, Tannhauser.
--
Kate Martin jul...@haven.boston.ma.us k...@gnu.ai.mit.edu
"I think we're in for a bad spel of wether." -- A button
"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere
in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." -- Calvin