Monday, December 12, 2016
What's In A Name Or A Spelling For That Matter?
I was just ordering some plays of Shakespeare on Amazon when my eyes was caught by their advertising the facsimile cover of the plays of Eurepedes. Yes, this was not some sophomore's critical paper in a class from yesterday, but rather the outfit that seeks to monopolize and control the distribution of books in the USA, nay the world. But should I react so violently to this misspelling? Should I be wild enough to assume ever so crazily that the staff at Amazon gives a rat's ass or whatever that idiom for the contents of what is on their shelves? I am old enough to remember book stores in every little town, maybe not with much of a stock, but still populated by those who read and loved books, was myself present for several years in the Harvard Square area where there were twenty eight bookstores. Think back to the cluster of bookstores in lower Manhattan above East 8th Street, at a fork in the streets, can't think of the name of this very distinctive place, bookstore after bookstore--oh, yes, Astor Place. (Thank God, for the survival of the Strand, ladies and gentlemen!) I still read from morning to night trying to remember to get up every hour to limp around enough to keep this aged frame in some way limber. Eurepedes. So depressing. I remember my older brother brought a girl friend over at Mother's suggestion for Sunday's noontime formal dinner. She was clearly "not our kind," to use one of Mother's phrases, a brassy, cheerful, quite good looking girl whom I have to think my brother was banging regularly. She entered the house vigorously chewing gum, at the sight of which I became instantly nervous, knowing mother's aversion to gum chewing, in general, by women in particular, in the living room and on into the dining room, most absolutely. My heart skipped a beat when the soup course was served and she paused to remove the gum from her mouth and set it on the platter which held her soup bowl. There it sat next to her, until the maids removed that course. Nothing was said later. I would have heard Mother's "little talk" with my brother taking place in the library. I guess it was beyond awful. Just like Eurepedes.
No comments:
Post a Comment