RE: GG: Wagner transcription (thanks)

[timcon <timcon@comswest.net.au>]

Hello Junichi,

>I got up to find I received many replies on/off list 
>about Aunt Sadie and her parlor upright, etc.  
>Thank you very much.
>They helps me a lot.  Now very "clear" and the only
>problem left me is how to translate the situation 
>into Japanese.
>
>It's early in the morning and I have to go out now,
>so forgive me not writing back to each of you personally.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Junichi
>
>P.S.  I thought it "dirty" partly because I found an entry
>in an English Japanese dictionary "Sadie Thompson".
>According to the dic. it stands for a prostitute.

My new ISP here in Broome is having trouble getting set up (please see my 
signature for the new email address) so I haven't been able to check any 
replies to your latest message of thanks. Forgive me if I repeat what 
others have said in this reply to it...and, BTW, as usual, Bradley 
produced the funniest replies to your original query. Do you think 
AltaVista or anyone can do an English-Japanese translation? It would make 
you redundant as a translator. If Bradley's email is anything to go by, 
however, you have nothing to fear.

The original Sadie Thompson was a character in a short story (c 1930?) by 
W Somerset Maugham  called 'Rain' (I'm doing this from memory as many of 
our books are stored in Melbourne while we spend a couple of years in 
Broome so, again, please forgive me if not all of my facts are quite 
right). She was indeed a prostitute. In the story, she and several other 
people arrive on a South Pacific island by ship and are forced to stay 
there because of the torrential rain. One of the others is a missionary, 
a grim and upright man, who tries to convert her -- but it seems that she 
'converts' him. He commits suicide, while she leaves on the first ship 
when the rains stop. The missionary's wife and the others in the party 
are desolate. The story has been filmed a number of times.

Another Sadie is Sexy Sadie in the Beatles' White Album, and there have 
been a number of others. I always associate the name Sadie with a certain 
degree of disrepute, as does the author of your dictionary. However, I 
don't think most people nowadays associate the name Sadie with 
prostitutes, although to me it still has a risque ring to it. 

I'm sure Gould intended no connotation of 'dirtiness' in using the name 
Sadie, but you do have a point: If he had said 'Aunt Jemima' (or 
whatever, a neutral name), something might have been missing. An Aunt 
Sadie might, in Gould's mind, have been more associated with the sort of 
saloon one used to see in Westerns and old Chaplin films, where the 
pianner-playeur (male or female) had to have a semi-evil grin and a 
lighted cigarette in the mouth. That sort of person would definitely play 
tremolando febriloso magnifico ad infinitum both hands and, if female, 
would be more likely to have the name Sadie than Jemima. And wear 
garters. Ou sont les neige d'antan?

Was Gould a fan of Somerset Maugham? Or of Westerns? I imagine he could 
have been a great saloon-bar player if he could have nipped the tendency 
to Bachianise every tune in the bud.

Tim
<timcon@comswest.net.au>
Broome, Western Australia