Puzzles in Reading O. Henry

The first is a non word. A neologism, if you want to get fancy. Sometimes, people want to sound much better educated and higher class than they are. When O. Henry had characters talk like this, he is showing you their actual abilities. His presidential character is dumb and classless.

That cylinder refers to an old recording device. Music and speech were recorded on wax cylinders in the same manner as phonographic records. Mr. President is offering a scripted response that might as well have been a recording that he plays back for everyone.

Immediately after, he mentions "plate matter". It is usually called 'boiler plate'.

You know, if you have a choice in what you read to learn the language, you could probably do better to pick something more contemporary and conventional.

Thank you. I am a translator learning English as a second language, and I am trying to translate the works of O. Henry into Chinese. Difficulties do exist in understanding his works, and that's the reason why I am here asking you for help. I am sure that with such good teachers as you, I will fulfill my dream.

I have an English-Chinese dictionary named Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary published by Oxford University Press. When I run into new words or phrases, I usually look up this dictionary or search then through Google. However, I found that these are far from enough, such as the word "cylinder". I cannot find the meaning you said either on dictionary or on the internet. I don't know why. Can you give me some suggestions as to how to find sources for authoritative and more comprehensive definitions for words or phrases so that I won't bother you guys too much.

No one here minds if you come to ask questions, it won't bother us. About the only time that it is a problem is if the student (or translator) does not provide context, or enough context. So, for example, a reliable explanation of cylinder is only possible because you have provided enough context. You're doing fine.

As for the specific case of cylinder, that usage was limited to a few years. Although there were some early sound recordings on cylinders in the 1860s, the use of cylinders did not become common until Thomas Edison perfected the earlier devices in 1878. But in 1887, less than a decade later, the phonograph was invented, which used a disc rather than a cylinder. So, the cylinder for recording was in use for such a short period of time, that many people no longer know it, and the people who make dictionaries have either forgotten it, or didn't know it. Below is an image of the type of play-back device used with cylinders--you can see the cylinder on the left of the machine:

You have taken on a difficult task, Maple. Many native English speakers would
have trouble with O Henry's wordplay and his references to the politics and
technology of his day. Good luck to you!

cylinders persisted beyond 1887, into the early years of the 20th century, I think. It was kinda like Betamax and VCR--duelling formats for a few years (there were also other less-common formats competing with them). Edison was stubborn, but he lost.

You might try www.dictionary.com, too. They give you definitions from many dictionaries when you give them a word. O. Henry wrote clever stories, but his language is likely to include many words not used today, which won't really help English-learners.

Good answers, here.

Well done, chaps, and ladies too if any.

O Henry is rather tricky, for sure. Reminds me a bit, too, of our P G Wodehouse.

"Our"? You can have my share of him if you want, he gets on my t*ts. Always has. I suppose many kinds of humour has a short shelf life. Not all. There are some very funny bits in Chaucer, and I was reading "The Topography Of Ireland" by Gerald Of Wales written in 1185 approx, parts of which made me laugh out loud.

Good show, Set! I was at a loss to explain what I was pretty sure I knew.

I've got to find that Topography of Ireland - never heard of it or Gerald of Wales.
I remember Chaucer as being quite funny and liked reading it in what I remember as the original text spellings.
Wodehouse I'd have to review - I think I only read one item and don't remember it.

I, for example, had never heard of the cylinder for recording - thank you, Set.

Also - welcome to a2k, Maple.

Wodehouse is chiefly known these days for his Jeeves and Bertie Wooster stories, especially since they were produced for television. However, that was not the sum of his writing, and he had several literary hobby horses he rode--for example, he wrote many stories which revolved around golf, and that is some of his best dry and subtle humor, building to some of his most ridiculous humor. I enjoy his writing, but least of all for the Jeeves-Bertie Wooster stories, which are only so-so.

People can find humor in the oddest places. Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote Poor Folk and Notes from Underground as serious works, but he was then convicted of sedition, and he, along with several others, was taken out into the prison yard, where he and his companions were to be executed, and then they were fired on by a firing squad with blank charges. They were then informed that they were all to be exiled to Siberia for four years. When he returned, he wrote Crime and Punishment, and, of course, he continued to write "serious" literature. But i find it hard to believe that he any longer took society as seriously as he once did (especially when he wrote Poor Folk). So there is a good deal of satire lurking in his "serious" literature. When i was 30 and working at a university, a friend of mine who was a skilled machinist (and therefore hauling the big bucks) was going to night school with a view to getting a degree eventually. He had to read The Brothers Karamosov, and he asked me if i had read it. I told him i had, but when i was 14, and that i ought to reread it. I did, and i laughed most of the way through. Knowing by then what i did about Dostoyevsky's life and having read so much else by him, i found it hard to take it so seriously. Of course, he wrote works which were intended as humor at the outset--The Friend of the Family is just hilarious, as it was intended.

You can find humor in many places, and often not where one would think to find it. For Wodehouse, i recommend his golf stories. I know next to nothing about golf, but i found those stories delightful.

This is a fantastic platform, even better than the classroom. So nice to meet you guys!

Sometimes it helps to learn the culture to understand how English is used or abused. High school also creates it own codes so words are deliberatedly given a different meaning to hide the students' intentions from adults.

I'm sure I didn't read the Jeeves or Bertie Wooster stories, but golf rings a bell.

I definitely laughed reading Brothers Karamozov once I got past the early listing of names. I think I was seventeen, maybe eighteen.

Russian novels should come with a complete listing of names applied to each character.

Books can make me or break me at the beginning. I never did make it past the first page or two of The Sound and the Fury, and not because of names - it was the run on sentence. Re Mitchener, I never made past the first descriptive pages of Hawaii. I have a couple of books by the well regarded Cormac McCarthy, and the first I tried was simply impossible for me to tolerate (I think it was All the Pretty Horses); I might have made it through thirty pages. I've put them aside for about five years now.

On the other hand, I've been strongly compelled by early description in a book. The last one I remember was Augustin Yanez' The Edge of the Storm (in translation).