Friday, April 22, 2022

Alan Moore's Jerusalem: Book 3: Vernall's Inquest: Round the Bend: Lines 5-6.

Line 5: "Ah, what a performance, practised and applausible."

Non-Lucy-Lips Version: "Ah, what a performance, practiced and plausible."

"what a performance"
This suggests that Lucia's high spirits and upbeat morning energy are simply a put-on to fool the doctors and nurses. Perhaps, like many schizophrenics, she prefers her non-medicated state and so must continue to act happy around those who might suspect she needs more or different medications which would alter her mood away from the one she seems currently happy with.

"practised and applausible"
She has been doing her performance for quite some time and it has gotten so plausible that it would be truly applauded by any audience in observance of it.

Line 6: "She claps her hands, over her ears, to drone out all the deadful wile-ing and the sorey implecations of whor farmlay."

Non-Lucy-Lips Version: "She clasps her hands, over her ears, to drown out all the dreadful wailing and the sorry implications/imprecations of her family."

"claps her hands"
Clapping hands make a large percussive noise, the opposite of what Lucia wants at this moment. And while one can "clap their hands over their ears," I chose to change it to "clasp" simply for that reason. The loud sound of a clap is something Lucia currently wants to avoid as she, presumably, enters the cafeteria with all of the other inmates of the asylum.

"to drone out"
Obviously clapping your hands to your ears doesn't "drone" out other noises. But maybe making her own low rumbling mumble, it helps her to not hear any ranting or raving from other inmates.

"all the deadful wile-ing"
In this instance, perhaps it isn't the inmates "wailing" that Lucia is drying to "drone" out but the orders and suggestions from nurses and doctors trying to persuade or manipulate her to act a certain way. Of course, people who have gone "round the bend" can also sometimes see and hear the ghosts of the dead. So Lucia is probably trying to keep from hearing (by hands clapped to ears or droning on so she is all she hears) the rantings of other inmates, the orders of doctors and nurses, and the constant yammering of the dead, many of them probably also insane, which surround her (not to mention her family whom this sentence is ostensibly about. So maybe just drowning them out?).

"and the sorey implecations of whor farmlay."
This she is also trying to keep out of her head: memories of her family and their deeds.

"sorey"
Not only are the implications/imprecations of her family "sorry" but they also make her sore or angry to think about them.

"implecations"
Probably a combination of implications and imprecations. The "implications of her family" probably refer to their secret deeds (possibly incest according to this fictionalized account) which may have contributed to her mental state. An "imprecation" is a spoken curse and if that's not what Alan Moore intended, being that he's Alan Moore, I'll eat and cook my own face. In Lucia's eyes, her family itself is a spoken curse which she must drown out by constant babbling or mumbling. She's trying not to think about her family as much as she's trying not to hear the other noises around her. But due to the fact that every single sentence which goes through her mind is full of many, many meanings, she's going to have terrible luck not thinking about them.

"whor"
"Whor(e)" replaces "her" which probably means she can't help but think of herself as a whore, probably because of the incest with her brother but maybe also her attempted relationship with Samuel Beckett. Plus she was never shy about taking a lover, I don't think. I haven't read any biographies on her but she was a dancer who sometimes danced in France! Ooh la la, amirite?!

"farmlay"
I don't know about this one but I reckon it has to do with seeing her family as a farm where animals rut. The family members are the animals rutting. You know. Incestuously.

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