Line 51: "F'all here olter passonalities are her aswill, the topsy-turpsichorean tosst of Gapery, the fancianable lispian when cunninglingloss was belegged to be saphosticated, or the dis-appointed dawncer tearnin' down a prosterous careern at the prestageous Lastbet Druncan Shulethe becurse herr meister 'Merzed her in his kamflicated airy unphilosophies and fascile rachel pressurdice."
Non-Lucy-Lips Version: "For all her other personalities are her as well, the tipsy terpsichorean toast of Gay Paris, the fashionable lesbian when cunnilingus was believed to be sophisticated, or the disappointed dancer turning down a prosperous career at the prestigious Elizabeth Duncan School because her master immersed her in his complicated Aryan philosophies and facile racial prejudice."
Thanks to this site for helping me translate the "Lastbet Druncan" bit. The "Shulethe" I figured was school which helped get to the rest. This is getting so much harder!
"F'all"
I believe we've worked through spring and summer so far. Now we're on to fall. Also this sentence describes Lucia's "fall" from dancing (akin to "Lucifer" the "dawncer/dawn star/morning star"?).
"olter"
"Other" and "older," as in past personalities. They are chronologically older but they were Lucia when she was younger.
"passonalities"
These "personalities" were full of her youthful "passion." Dance was Lucia's passion in her youth and these personalities describe those times. "Pass on" as well as in these personalities were left behind by Lucia.
"aswill"
Probably the British definition of "swill" as in "to wash or rinse out by pouring large amounts of water over it" perhaps to indicate Lucia cleaning out an old personality to begin fresh and clean.
"topsy-turpsichorean"
"Topsy-turvy" from "tipsy terpsichorean," or drunk dancer, to indicate confusion and, possibly, the hedonism of the moment. Lucia was enjoying success as a dancer and living a wild life in Paris.
"tosst"
Lucia was a celebrated dancer in Paris, the "toast" of the town. But "tossed" continues the idea of the upside-down confusion of "topsy-turvy." Also, she was essentially "tossed" from the lifestyle as she became disillusioned with her abilities at her "advancing" age ("advancing" in quotes because she was still very young but behind many of the women who trained at dance from very early ages).
"Gapery"
"Gay Paris" with the suggestion of being "gaped at." Lucia's dancing left people awed and amazed, mouths "agape," at her abilities.
"fancianable"
"Fashionable" combined with "fancy." Sometimes Alan Moore's work is just making a word do a little more obvious work. To be fashionable is to be fancy. Redundancy is the point in a lot of these, to simply emphasize what is being said as strongly as possible.
"lispian"
A strong lisp is caused by the tongue doing more work than it's supposed to which is also something a lesbian's tongue does when engaged in "cunnilingus." "Lisping" is a speech impediment much like the way Lucia speaks (or perceives things?). Lucia declared she was a lesbian some time after Samuel Beckett told her he was more into her father than into her.
"cunninglingloss"
Lucia's way of speaking (which the Dead-Dead Gang call "Lucy Lips" (which itself is a "Lucy Lips" interpretation of "loose lips" which are also a suggestion of a sexually stimulated vagina)) could be considered a "loss" of communication in that it's hard to understand and thus not all of her intended meaning will reach the listener. But it's a "cunning" "loss" of "lingua/language" in that it actually winds up saying far more than it would without the speech impediment.
"belegged"
"Believed" but spelled to make you think of two women scissoring. Or at least that's what it made me think about. Although I'm probably thinking about that 60% of the time anyway so don't be so proud of yourself, Moore.
Non-Lucy-Lips Version: "For all her other personalities are her as well, the tipsy terpsichorean toast of Gay Paris, the fashionable lesbian when cunnilingus was believed to be sophisticated, or the disappointed dancer turning down a prosperous career at the prestigious Elizabeth Duncan School because her master immersed her in his complicated Aryan philosophies and facile racial prejudice."
Thanks to this site for helping me translate the "Lastbet Druncan" bit. The "Shulethe" I figured was school which helped get to the rest. This is getting so much harder!
"F'all"
I believe we've worked through spring and summer so far. Now we're on to fall. Also this sentence describes Lucia's "fall" from dancing (akin to "Lucifer" the "dawncer/dawn star/morning star"?).
"olter"
"Other" and "older," as in past personalities. They are chronologically older but they were Lucia when she was younger.
"passonalities"
These "personalities" were full of her youthful "passion." Dance was Lucia's passion in her youth and these personalities describe those times. "Pass on" as well as in these personalities were left behind by Lucia.
"aswill"
Probably the British definition of "swill" as in "to wash or rinse out by pouring large amounts of water over it" perhaps to indicate Lucia cleaning out an old personality to begin fresh and clean.
"topsy-turpsichorean"
"Topsy-turvy" from "tipsy terpsichorean," or drunk dancer, to indicate confusion and, possibly, the hedonism of the moment. Lucia was enjoying success as a dancer and living a wild life in Paris.
"tosst"
Lucia was a celebrated dancer in Paris, the "toast" of the town. But "tossed" continues the idea of the upside-down confusion of "topsy-turvy." Also, she was essentially "tossed" from the lifestyle as she became disillusioned with her abilities at her "advancing" age ("advancing" in quotes because she was still very young but behind many of the women who trained at dance from very early ages).
"Gapery"
"Gay Paris" with the suggestion of being "gaped at." Lucia's dancing left people awed and amazed, mouths "agape," at her abilities.
"fancianable"
"Fashionable" combined with "fancy." Sometimes Alan Moore's work is just making a word do a little more obvious work. To be fashionable is to be fancy. Redundancy is the point in a lot of these, to simply emphasize what is being said as strongly as possible.
"lispian"
A strong lisp is caused by the tongue doing more work than it's supposed to which is also something a lesbian's tongue does when engaged in "cunnilingus." "Lisping" is a speech impediment much like the way Lucia speaks (or perceives things?). Lucia declared she was a lesbian some time after Samuel Beckett told her he was more into her father than into her.
"cunninglingloss"
Lucia's way of speaking (which the Dead-Dead Gang call "Lucy Lips" (which itself is a "Lucy Lips" interpretation of "loose lips" which are also a suggestion of a sexually stimulated vagina)) could be considered a "loss" of communication in that it's hard to understand and thus not all of her intended meaning will reach the listener. But it's a "cunning" "loss" of "lingua/language" in that it actually winds up saying far more than it would without the speech impediment.
"belegged"
"Believed" but spelled to make you think of two women scissoring. Or at least that's what it made me think about. Although I'm probably thinking about that 60% of the time anyway so don't be so proud of yourself, Moore.
Here is a picture of Lucia Joyce's legs. She is dressed as a silver fish here. This could be where Moore got the idea to associate Lucia Joyce with a fish in many of the passages.
"saphosticated"
Sappho was a Greek poet from the island of Lesbos known for her love poetry and her gay. Imagine being a poet and millennia later, you're still basically known because you loved having sex with women. So much so that your home island was taken as the name for women who love other women. This is what people are fighting against when people of a minority group wind up simply being a representative of that minority group. What kind of shitty responsibility is that?! White males never represent all other white males nor are they expected to. But here we have a woman who just wanted to fuck other women and write some lovely poetry. Do we now say, "Oh, you're Sapphic!" when we learn somebody loves to write love poems? No! We say, "Oh, you're Sapphic!" when we discover a woman likes to eat pussy! Not cool, history.
"dis-appointed dawncer"
Is this comparing Lucia ("light") to Lucifer ("light-bringer")? She has been "appointed" to "Dis" (city in Hell according to The Divine Comedy, "Dis Pater" being the ancient Roman ruler of Hell, making Hell "the lands of Dis") and considered a "dawncer" as in "the dawn star" or Venus or "the light bringer" or "Lucifer." Not to suggest that Moore is trying to equate Lucia with evil. I think he means as in bringer of revelations while also, perhaps, a person seen by society as chaotic or evil even if they are simply misunderstood. And Lucia is easily misunderstood!
"tearnin'"
"Tears" were involved when "turning" down her career as a dancer.
"prosterous"
Lucia could have had a "prosperous" career in dancing is a "posterous" statement. It is not "preposterous" that she could have made a living as a dancer. "Prost" also means "cheers" in German where the school she could have joined (and been successful in and enjoyed the "cheers" of admirers) was located at Darmstadt.
"careern"
Lucia's "career" "careened" out of control to a degree that caused her to leave dancing.
"prestageous"
The school she would have enrolled in was "prestigious" and a place where she would learn more about dancing before hitting the stage ("pre-stage"). To "presage" something is to have a sign or warning that something bad will happen. Perhaps the failing of her dance career "presaged" her descent into madness.
"Lastbet Druncan Shulethe"
This was a difficult one to figure out but the "Shulethe" made it easier, realizing that it was simply evoking the German for school (since the school was in Germany). That meant trying to find out what school Lucia almost joined but didn't. It's not like her Wikipedia gives the name although it does mention the location of the school, Darmstadt. The article in The Irish Times, linked to above, was the first place I found the names of Raymond and Elizabeth Duncan. Elizabeth offered Lucia a job teaching dance at her academy, the Elizabeth Duncan School, in Darmstadt. But Lucia turned it down, even though it was her "last bet" to continue her dance career. "Druncan" perhaps suggests that her alcohol use ("tipsy" earlier) was part of this although if Moore is suggesting it, I haven't really read anything that would support the assumption that alcohol had anything to do with her choices. "Schule" is German for "school." The word ends in "lethe", as in the River Lethe in Hades which causes a person to forget their past, meaning Lucia was forced to "forget" dancing. This could also tie in with the "drunk" of "Druncan."
"becurse"
Her "forgetting" her past and leaving behind dancing was a "curse" to Lucia.
"herr meister"
"Mister master" in German for "her master."
"'Merzed her"
"Immersed her" but with the proper noun "Merz." This was Elizabeth Duncan's husband whom I couldn't find much about although I didn't spend a lot of time searching because his name didn't have a hyperlink on it in Elizabeth Duncan's Wikipedia page. But I did find a passage in a JSTOR article I couldn't access that referred to him as a "fanatical anti-Semite." I'd say that fits with the stuff that follows. Thus Lucia was "immersed" in Max "Merz's" anti-Semitic beliefs.
"kamflicated"
"Kampf," famously, is German for "fight" or "struggle" or "battle." Thus "complicated" takes on an association with Hitler's Mein Kampf and all it's associated with. The suggestion is probably not that the philosophies of Merz were "complicated" but that having them tied in with Lucia's job and her love of dance "complicated" her passion and career. Also, it was a "struggle" or "Kampf" for her to take this position due to Merz and Duncan's beliefs.
"airy unphilosophies"
A good way of describing Nazi "Aryan philosophies": "un-philosophic" and without substance ("airy").
"fascile"
"Facile" and "fascist" in combination. The "fascist" beliefs of the Nazi were in fact "facile" arguments, shallow and without any merit.
"rachel"
Other than a Friends reference, I have no idea. I mean, I know it's meant to be "racial" but why "rachel"? Perhaps because it's a Jewish name from the Old Testament? The name means "ewe." I suppose this can be taken as in the people who followed the Nazis were sheep (which is the best way to take it) or that Nazi philosophy saw the Jewish people (and other non-Aryans) as sheep. I guess it also means that Rachel from Friends was the superficial sheep-like follower. Yeah, that tracks.
"pressuredice."
"Prejudice" induced by the "pressure" of Nazi aggression. It also once again invokes Eurydice sentenced to Hell by a loved one's act of compassion. In the end, Lucia was forced into hospitals by her family. I don't know if "dice" means anything. Lucia gambled on not taking the job but it was a bad gamble because this was her "last bet" to remain in a "career" in dancing?
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