And while the abilities of the nine-hundredth
abridger of the History of England, or of the man who collects and publishes in a volume some dozen lines of Milton, Pope, and Prior, with a paper from the Spectator, and a chapter from Sterne, are eulogized by a thousand pens -- there seems almost a general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them.
The phallos, muses Randy Pedarson, the novel's fictional
abridger and annotator, "is always something someone else possesses--never oneself: wealth, power, brilliance, knowledge, a bigger cock than yours, fame, a faithful or a beautiful lover, personal beauty, talent, wisdom, social assurance, a way with women or with men ...
And while the abilities of the nine-hundredth
abridger of the History of England, or of the man who collects and publishes in a volume some dozen lines of Milton, Pope, and Prior, with a paper from the Spectator, and a chapter from Sterne, are eulogized by a thousand pens,--there seems almost a general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist.
(43) Like the 'husbandman, the labourer, the miner or the smith', the journalist, periodical writer,
abridger or epitome writer makes a necessary and valuable contribution to the cultural economy, one that is worthy of recognition, but which is thereby naturalized as different in value and status from the works of the masters of learning.
Thompson gets down to the effectiveness of the shot/reverse shot treatment of Gollum's arguments with himself, while Kaveny shows how Gollum serves as "an
abridger," who "integrat[es] the big picture of what is at stake on a moral ethical and spiritual level" (189).
Those arguing for abridgement or memorial reconstruction might reasonably identify these as examples of the dilution, transposition, or omission of phrasing that might occur with an
abridger cutting, or an actor/ reporter attempting to recall Q2 but not quite succeeding.
And while the abilities of the nine-hundredth
abridger of the History of England, or of the man who collects and publishes in a volume some dozen lines of Milton, Pope, and Prior, with a paper from the Spectator, and a chapter from Sterne, are eulogized by a thousand pens, there seems almost a general wish of decrying the capacity and undervaluing the labour of the novelist, and of slighting the performances which have only genius, wit, and taste to recommend them.
abridger - one who shortens or abridges or condenses a written work