tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post4139683104181403101..comments2024-01-29T03:20:32.291-05:00Comments on ...... SHARP ELVES SOCIETY ...... Jane Austen's Shadow Stories: “I will tell you truths while I can”--shocking truths Jane Austen told about fathers playing “backgammon” Arnie Perlsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01720424361279466002noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1436417288060370638.post-22257055441705789142015-09-11T06:54:59.696-04:002015-09-11T06:54:59.696-04:00Arnie,
As soon as I saw that Jenny had identified...Arnie,<br /><br />As soon as I saw that Jenny had identified backgammon as slang for sodomite--and, yes, of course, it would be slang for that once you think about--I immediately jumped to the two bookend backgammon woes that Emma suffers--her fear of endless nights of backgammon with her father at the beginning and the seemingly ridiculous, comic idea of her penance after Box Hill--spending time playing backgammon with her father! But then--you will love thi--I looked up gammon on a whim and it is the back portion or hind leg of a pig. You know how often I have pondered and been nagged by that hind portion of the pig that Emma/Mr. W send the Bates, wanting somehow to connect it to the animal cruelty of eating suckling pigs described in Lamb's seemingly comic essay written after Austen's death. But now it takes on a different meaning, one I don't need to spell out.Diane Reynoldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13116776256936607094noreply@blogger.com