Re: "There Goes A Tenner" revisited

[Doug Alan <nessus@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>]

> From: ranjit@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Ranjit Bhatnagar)

> Starting with "There goes a tenner" - it's obviously back to the
> present, since it is recited in the present tense (hey!) - and
> refers to the destruction of the safe which led to the current
> arrest.

> Doug maintains that the last 5 lines are still part of the memories of
> a past burglary.  But, since they are in the present tense and mention
> the money which has JUST NOW been blown up, they're more likely to
> refer to the present.

Actually, I think that *both* your and my theory are correct.  I think
that at the time of the reverie, Kate is still a'midst the rubble of
the explosion and that it is the combination of the breeze from the
holes in the walls, the money floating all around, the bump on her
head, and the desire to be in better times, that triggers the reverie.
The "fiver" and the "ten shilling note" are seen by Kate both in the
real present, *and* in her reverie.

I don't agree with your argument, however, that just because the last
few lines are in the present tense that they *must* refer to the
present.  The present tense looks exactly the same as the "historical
present tense", which is used to refer to events in the past.  The
historical present tense is precisely the literary mechanism that
would normally be used to describe events in the past as seen through
the eyes of someone lost in a reverie.  I didn't want to get into this
before, because it was too much to type, but now that you mention it,
what the hey...

> Also, "Gaffa" means "any of several groups of viruses which are
> transmitted by arthropods, some of which cause encephalitis, yellow
> fever, and dengue fever."  You can look it up!

Well, this isn't in my American Heritage Dictionary, but the American
Heritage ain't a medical dictionary either.  It seems unlikely to your
humble pseudo-moderator that Kate had this in mind.  But then again,
ya' never know...

"Love will get you like a case of anthrax
 And that's a thing I don't wanna catch."

|>oug