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please help me with this phrase

Forums: English, Grammar, Other Languages, Latin Translations, Not Latin
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google808
 
Reply Thu 21 May, 2009 03:40 am
"And I very often wish that I could know the truth about just any one circumstance connected with my life. Is the phantasmagoria of sound and noise and color really passing or is it all an illusion here in my brain? How do you know that you are not dreaming me, for instance? In your conceded dreams, I am sure, you must invent and see and listen to persons who for the while seem quite as real to you as I do now. As I do, you observe, I say! and what thing is it to which I so glibly refer as I?"
In this passage, what does "As I do, you observe, I say!" mean?
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fresco
 
  1  
Reply Thu 21 May, 2009 05:50 am
@google808,
This phrase is questioning the existential status of "I" .
The existential status of "self" is part of a branch of philosophy called "ontology"
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George
 
  1  
Reply Thu 21 May, 2009 06:54 am
@google808,
Quote:
In this passage, what does "As I do, you observe, I say!" mean?

I believe he means that as I do something, you can at best observe it. That is,
my action -- indeed, my very person -- is to you nothing more than a set of
sensations. The phrase "I say!" is only there for emphasis.
George
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  2  
Reply Thu 21 May, 2009 07:11 am
@George,
Quote:
In your conceded dreams, I am sure, you must invent and see and
listen to persons who for the while seem quite as real to you
as I do now. As I do, you observe, I say! and what thing is it to
which I so glibly refer as I


I just read Cabell's text again in context and I've changed my mind. When
he says "As I do" he is referring to having said "as I do now" in the previous
sentence. He tells the reader, effect, "you have noticed that I said 'as I do',
but what do I mean by 'I'?" He then goes on to explain how difficult it is to
really isolate one's self from the body, emotions, memories and the like
layered on top of it.
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