Talk:Jimmy Finlayson
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[edit] Big D
I'm converting
- At that time the word "Damn" was considered blasphemous and was censored. Indeed, the "well-bred captain of the Pinafore" in Gilbert and Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore" is acclaimed by the chorus because he "Never uses a big, big D!" referring to the word."
to
- At that time the word "damn" was censored in American films.
Whether it was censored bcz considered blasphemous or just low-class manners may be verifiable, but the true context of the (false) quotation from Pinafore actually undercuts the claim of blasphemy-concern. Here's what's in the libretto (emphasis added by Jerzy):
- CAPT.
- Bad language or abuse,
- I never, never use,
- Whatever the emergency;
- Though "Bother it" I may
- Occasionally say,
- I never use a big, big D--
- ALL.
- What, never?
- CAPT.
- No, never!
- ALL.
- What, never?
- CAPT.
- Hardly ever!
- ALL.
- Hardly ever swears a big, big D-- ...
And not only
- does the chorus challenge, twice, his use of "never" in this context, and
- does he own up to exceptions and
- does no one utter "[n]ever uses a big, big D!",
but in fact this whole exchange is a crucial link, with contrary force, in the plot: in the other act, we find him uttering (on a Victorian British stage), however he may have intended to spell the crucial word:
CAPT. (trying to repress his anger).
- In uttering a reprobation
- To any British tar,
- I try to speak with moderation,
- But you have gone too far.
- I'm very sorry to disparage
- A humble foremast lad,
- But to seek your captain's child in marriage,
- Why damme, it's too bad!
(And he soon repeats that final line, and then delivers it a third time in unison with the coarsest of HMS Pinafore's characters.) It may be an excited utterance, but it is neither blurted nor unintentional.
If "Damn" was by 1878 sufficiently de-blasphemized in UK for this scene to be performed before high society, far more needs to be said before implicating blasphemy re American films a half century later. And citing Pinafore re language taboos requires much more nuance.
--Jerzy•t 18:16, 9 August 2007 (UTC)
