![]() ![]() I like Ike (slogan of Eisenhower's presidential campaign)Ĭacophonic and childish. Displaces form from content and turns upside down what expected. It's typical of a context of order and precision, of bosses submitting employees, speaks of registers and accounts, yet is used for ordering Cratchitt to go out and joyfully squander money. there is an awful lot of reasons to draw the attention of the reader on this sentence. And there is also the "sticky effect" (in italian "tormentone", didn't find an equivalent), repeating over and over the thing in different contexts to fix it in the audience heads. More, it is pleonastic as "bah" in itself means "rubbish!". Instead Scrooge closes up further discussions with a dismissive "humbags". In fact "bah" usually opens up to a description to follow. Readers already know that Scrooge despises Christmas, but they expect him to enjoy sarcastically giving others a rationale for his distaste. Because it goes against the universal consensus that Christmas is a good time. If this is the case, what makes "God bless us, every one" a meme?īoth "bah" and "humbags" are nothing worthwhile and yet it's "shocking". On the other hand I could just be projecting too much into something that is pretty normal in itself (in Italy is called "esotismo" = exoticism, being misled by the charme of something unfamiliar). I am supposing that Dickens wants Tim to indulge in such practice. ![]() Rather, the Almighty will perform a blessing in a Santa Claus' way, taking the time for coming nearby and blessing us one by one.Ĭhildren sometimes defeat syntax or grammar in order to - uhm - "enormify" their statement (to the delight and/or amusement of adults). Reading the novel in English I had the impression that Tiny Tim aims to state that God will not do a "usual" blessing to the whole humanity. "God bless us, every one" looks a bit like overdoing. To my non native ear, "God bless us", is a complete enough wish. I'd like to hear from natives on the subject. Else, its effectiveness may just be context driven (good writing practice or such). I suspect that the "something special" of this sentence (in English) could lie in a slight departure from proper syntax, or from common use. In both the translations of the novel I read, it is rendered in plain Italian, without nuances, it is not memorable (and I think Italian readers don't even notice it is used twice in the novel - I didn't). ![]() Instead in the Italian translations the phrase happens to have a poor catch - if any - on the reader (thus weakening what in English is a well carved out ending). The point is, the original "God bless us, every one" is nearly as memorable as "Bah, humbug!". I know that for a native this may sound as a dumb question. The sentence is used twice in the novel, the second one being also the closing. Context: "God bless us, every one" is a Tiny Tim's quote from "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. ![]()
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