[ExI] newtonmas songs again

[Darin Sunley]

"Pudding" is a generic English term for "dessert food".

"Figgy" is an adjective - like unto or containing figs.

The singers are making a rambunctious demand for fig-based dessert pie. The
emphaticness of this demand, and the associated threat, is sufficiently
hyperbolic and outside middle- and upper-class social norms of the period
that it would have been understood as over-the-top absurd humor by the
original audience, and taken as such.

The current literary vogue of "death of the author" nothwithstanding, a lot
of works become much more comprehensible when read in their original
context.

Of course, you can't make a career as a professor of English literature if
you do that, so it's pretty unpopular in academia. :)

On Fri, Dec 20, 2019, 11:44 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

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> *From:* extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> *On Behalf
> Of *Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
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> But that next part, oh my goodness: We won’t go until we get some.  Some.
> Get some.  They won’t go until they get some… what?  From the context, we
> might presume they want “some” of that suspicious-sounding “figgy pudding”
> but at this utterance, I might be resorting to faking a seizure and having
> the ambulance rescue me from these “figgy pudding” demanders.
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> >…As always with these things, one must consider the context - which in
> this case was England, some centuries ago.  "Figgy pudding" was a common
> dish, and the carolers' demands were basically the poor asking for alms in
> a season when their needs were traditionally given more weight than in the
> rest of the year.
> https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/what-the-heck-is-figgy-pudding-and-why-do-we-sing-about-it/ has
> more info.
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> So we are told Adrian, but in our age of heightened awareness, we see
> through the thin veneer.  Those Newtonmas songs are full of stuff that
> escapes the modern awareness, misheard lyrics and such.  Consider for
> instance the Jose Feliciano classic which is in a mixture of English and
> what is commonly misreported as Spanish.  The line
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> Feliz Navidad prospero ano y Felicidad
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> is not Spanish at all in reality, and has nothing to do with wishing
> anyone prosperous year or any of that.  In reality, Feliziano is singing in
> a mixture of English and his real second language Fulani Swahili.  Of
> course there are so few speakers of the obscure dialect Fulani Swahili, the
> listeners read into it the Spanish rather than the mixture often referred
> to as Swahenglish, and hear something about seasons greetings.  The real
> meaning is about unwanted figgy-pudding-demanding guests, cornered by Cujo
> the rabid dishwasher, snarling and snapping as they desperately try to
> negotiate with him to not tear them a bloody new asshole.
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> The real translation of the Swahenglish is not:
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> Feliz Navidad prospero ano y Felicidad
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> but rather is really more along the lines of:
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> Please naughty dog, I prosper with the ass I had.
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> Of course neither Spain nor England wants to admit any of this, so we get
> this pleasant cover story about mysterious but suspicious-sounding
> fig-based confections no one ever heard of wishes for prosperous new year
> and all that.
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> But you already knew this was going to happen, ja?  Every year, the same
> thing, spike desperately struggling to inform his young friends about the
> real meanings of the songs.  It’s my civic duty, you’re welcome.
>
>
>
> spike
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