Re: "You're a prince"

Aaron (aaron.brager@writeme.com)
Fri, 25 Jun 1999 21:53:41 -0400 

Let me know when you think I've gone too far.

"Prince" comes from two latin words: primus, which means "first" and capere,
which means "to take".  (A prince, therefore, is one who is the first to
take.)

I believe that most of the times he used the word prince, it was always
someone who 'took' something--and in most good literature i've read (works
such as Merchant of Venice, The Odyssey (all books, not just 9-12), and Huck
Finn come to mind) the people who take something always tend to lose.  This
seems consistent with most of the examples I can think of in the story, e.g.
Holden's 'other' roommate (the pimply guy whose name I can't remember)-- and
even Holden, eventually-- by taking freedom instead of responsibility.

By the way, PHONY comes from the word ánne.  It's an Old Irish word ;)

--
Cheers,
Aaron
Today's Quote:
"And the beast shall come forth surrounded by a roiling cloud of vengeance.
The house of the unbelievers shall be razed and they shall be scorched to
the earth."
  -- The book of Mozilla, 12:10
----- Original Message -----
From: Camille Scaysbrook <verona_beach@geocities.com>
To: <bananafish@lists.nyu.edu>
Sent: Friday, June 25, 1999 9:24 PM
Subject: Re: "You're a prince"


> I guess if you want to get *really* theoretical about it you could call
> `prince' another one of Holden's subversions of traditional authority. A
> prince is someone everybody's supposed to bow down to, and Holden doesn't
> bow down to anybody but the people he thinks he should. By using the term
> in a derogatory way he's devaluing it as a symbol of oppression; he's on
> top of things. It reminds me of his opinion of Stradlater - you could
> imagine him being handsome in a `princey' kind of wholesome, too-perfect
> way, but we know the truth about him and it lies on his rusty razor (:
>
> Camille
> verona_beach@geocities.com
> @ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
> @ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
>
> Rick and Mirijam wrote:
> > Thor --
> >
> > "Prince" is just a colloquialism from the 40's & 50's (and maybe a bit
> > earlier), a sort of wise-guy (non-gangster), quick-hip usage. If you
> think of
> > Preston Sturges -- or his most brilliant modern-day offspring, Joel &
> Ethan
> > Coen ("Miller's Crossing") -- I think you may get a sense of this shoot
> from
> > the lip, stacatto, tommygun vocal delivery. It seems to be Holden's
> temporary
> > slide into B-movie shorthand. It seems the difference between phony and
> > prince, at least in usage ... well, the former seems like the utterance
> of a
> > somewhat petulant child, while the latter sounds like the utterance of a
>
> > somewhat delinquent juvenile.
> >
> > Mirjam and Rick
>