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Date:         Mon, 14 Sep 1992 11:05:00 EDT
From:         Gilbert Smith <N567126@NCSUADM.ACS.NCSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Gleanings (59)
Comments: To: English Language Discussion Group <WORDS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>

> >  4) Juan Pablo Forner/Galdo/Concha-Ruth Morell/Tsuchiya (Natalie/<Gilbert>)
>
> Ask giggles.  He deals with these people in his other life.  (I find it
> interesting sometimes to think about the other lives of WORDSLers.  I assume
> that we all have "real lives," i.e., serious professional lives, in addition
> to our list lives.  There are no doubt some pretty big differences in some
> cases between list persona and real-life persona.)
>
>    --Natalie (maynor@ra.msstate.edu)

In my "real life", I got my reappointment at the rank of Assistant
Professor at NCSU because I had published a <book> on Juan Pablo
Forner (Boston:G.K.Hall, 1976), a fairly obscure, very conservative
essayist in late 18th century Spain.  Years later, after I was
promoted and granted tenure over the objections of my then-department
head, I found the library copy of my book had been "mutilated" with
numerous negative comments written in pencil throughout, in the hand
of that dept head.  He is now gone on to greater things, fortunately.
He had the gall to note the places where I used "which" instead of
"that" and stuff like that.  When I published the book, I was only
39 forchrissake!).
Galdos is Benito Perez Galdos, who is to the Spaniards what Dickens
is to the English.  Novelist who wrote hundreds of novels, both
historical series about early 19th century Spain and contemporary
"novel" novels, and plays.  Still very much read and the subject of
more research in Hispanic studies than any other author except
Cervantes.  Excellent novels that have been newly translated
recently because of the 100th anniversary of the publication of his
major works-_Fortunata and Jacinta_ and_Torquemada_(on which -ggs
wrote his PhD dissertation).  Concha Ruth Morell was Galdos' mistress,
and -ggs' greatest career move was being in the right place at the
right time, "discovering" a set of love letters from her to him,
which "proved" that Galdos had copied the letters into his novel,
Tristana (on which Bunuel based the film), and publishing the
"find" in Anales Galdosianos.  Of the many times that -ggs has been
cited, 90% of them are due to that article.
Akiko Tsuchiya is a young professor of Spanish at Purdue who
published last year a very good study of <Semiotic Consciousness in
the Novels of Benito Perez Galdos> and I was asked to write a review
of the book.  The book was the result of a dissertation done under
the guidance of John Kronik of Cornell, the editor of PMLA, and a
close friend of mine in the profession.  The Tsuchiya book was laden
with difficult semiotic terminology, and I found myself <talking that
way> in the review, which natalie quoted in the funniest possible
way and led gt to think it was a parody....  I was *quite* amused.
Akiko may not have been so amused....  I think she is not a <net-
person>, so she might have misunderstood what was happening.
Anyway, a good laugh was had by all, as they say in academic circles.
--ggs
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU