SPOILERS Favourite bit of Unseen Academicals (may contain spoilers)

[Tonyblack]

I remember Dave Hayden posting on the CA board that Terry had contacted him to ask if he could use him in the book.

 

[meerkat]

oh, as in an argy-bargy! I thought Meebs meant as in boats etc etc!

 

[Anonymous]

I meant rowing as in whatever someone was refering to some pages back I'm lost

 

[Doughnut Jimmy]

I believe UA is the first TP book with a gay character (correct me if I'm wrong). The joke about rowing made me laugh.

Do you mean this comment lilmaibe?

 

[Anonymous]

*nods* yes.
I thught of the quote Mad agve and I never really got why exactly Ponster is blushing there

 

[Tonyblack]

*nods* yes.
I thught of the quote Mad agve and I never really got why exactly Ponster is blushing there

I think it's this bit specifically:

‘And then there was old Postule, who was in the rowing team. Coxed us through two wonderful years.'

Please don't make me spell it out.

 

[Anonymous]

Wait, it IS pronounced like that...?
Why, thanks a lot, now I have a new oneliner for my fanfiction Dx
(highlight below if you want to read it)

"Stibbons, just who is putting all those dirty thought into your head?!" Ridcully didn't turn, but he had the odd feeling that, behind him, Courtsbridge and Turnipseed were slowly and awkwardly raising their hands.

 

[The Mad Collector]

Yes, I deliberately didn't try to explain it, just put the relevant line in italics

 

[Tonyblack]

It helps if you are from the Carry On films generation.

 

[The Mad Collector]

It would be tricky to translate though so I can see why non-English versions could be confusing at this point.

 

[Anonymous]

It helps if you are from the Carry On films generation.

And from England...

As for the translation of that part:
I doubt even if it would have been easier it would have been a mess with the new translator... He makes them books read like a dry guide on grammar :x

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Which makes me feel glad I switched over to the English-language originals ... Which I can recommend, by the way, for learning English.

I had been reading my first English-language books without knowing everything, and Pterry definitively uses words which are a bit difficult to understand (simply because they aren't frequently used in literature, in forums etc.), and I really didn't want to look after ... every tenth word or so in my dictionary.

So, with this, I learned quite a "feeling" for the language ... rather than specific words.

In the course of time I found out (and sometimes looked for) the words I didn't know via my English-language dictionary, but often via deducing from the context alone (which is able to give a word's meaning a slight distortion).

I'm still proud I managed to read through LOTR 10 years ago ... I think I should do it again now, since I've definitively leaned much more words then than.

But what escapes me is the sublte subliminal sub-meanings (sub, sub, sub), which are there because or when words remind people of other words. This can be found quite a lot with Tolkien, because for example his Hobbit-names are distant "reminders" of actual English words. "Peregrin Tuk", for example.

This is my biggest hassle in reading and understanding English-language books - apart from rarelöy used words which sometimes even aren't in my own English-language dictionaries situated on my bookshelf.

The worst drawback is, however, that I'm beginning to mix German & English grammar. I'm active in several internationl forums - always writing & reading in English, of course - and that just adds up.

 

[Anonymous]

Something just occurred to me:

‘I’m glad you feel like that, Archchancellor, because I know that a number of the students—’

(from Ponder, just before that rowing bit)

any word of god how THAT sentence was suppossed to end?

 

[Tonyblack]

Not sure at all. Ponder seems to be trying to delicately explain that Bengo was gay or bisexual. He knows Ridcully and how difficult it can be to get him to see the bloody obvious and, of course, Ponder finds such things difficult to talk about in the first place.

But then it seems that he has gotten through to Ridcully a lot easier than he'd expected to.

What he was going to say about the students is not known. Maybe: Many of the students are gay and afraid to come out about it. Who knows?

 

[meerkat]

Perhaps Prof Macarona had propositioned some of the students?

 

[The Mad Collector]

What he was going to say about the students is not known. Maybe: Many of the students are gay and afraid to come out about it. Who knows?

Or they could be homophobic and Ponder is pleased that Ridcully clearly isn't. I think the fact that Terry left that incomplete was a very good way of handling the issue as it just leaves every possibility open

 

[meerkat]

Bengo must be gay cos I quite 'like' Bengo!

All men I fancy turn out to be gay!

 

[hattie]

"Aho, the Megapode".. loved that bit...and of course the not-really-german titles of the books Nutt quotes


What made me think a lot was all the talk about "worth" and Glenda saying something like "it's as if worth was something that drained away and that you had to keep filling up".

 

[Tonyblack]

There really is such a thing as a megapode.

 

[Macarona]

I liked Macaronas titles, de wordes commentary and Nutt beating up Andy. I loved the match in general as well. The dean is now evil :x Oh and the megapode chasing