Timeline for What does this word mean in this passage from Frank Herbert's Dune?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 9, 2016 at 2:12 | comment | added | Robbie Goodwin | I’ve read Dune often and I never noticed that sentence but now, I’m sorry to say I think Mick’s right. I tend to agree with Alan Carmack but I think JEL’s “… iron or steel rods” is an extended sub-set of the ancient bundle of thick sticks or thin branches. Extrapolations with different meaning but equal merit support Jason’s bundle burning… which with little imagination matches Mick’s weak source. Does it suffices to say that while the derivation is not entirely unclear, this was not one of Herbert’s best descriptions? | |
| Nov 26, 2016 at 2:44 | comment | added | Alan Carmack | Cheap meatballs aside, I agree that a faggot of luminous gray can refer to the dawn sky on the fictional planet Arrakis, which as @MattSamuel points out is gray (or, upon my checking the book, described as colorless, gray, or grayish (burnished silver-blue, et al.)) due to the sun's distance and lack of water on the planet's surface. I am not able to take away my downvote unless the answer is edited. | |
| Nov 25, 2016 at 0:19 | comment | added | Mick | @BoldBen This fits better with the need to suggest a weak source of light (and is a more modern usage). | |
| Nov 25, 2016 at 0:05 | comment | added | BoldBen | @AlanCarmack Another meaning of "faggot" is a sort of cheap savoury meatball made from minced butchery scraps (actually more tasty than it sounds). The bundle of sticks and the and the meatball are both smaller, working class and, to some extent inferior substitutes for something richer people would buy (the bundle of sticks replaces a proper log and the meatball replaces a steak or other cut of meat). The faggot of light, therefore, suggests, to me, a low quality substitute for a proper dawn light. Mick's suggestion also sounds fine to me. | |
| Nov 24, 2016 at 23:52 | comment | added | Mick | @AlanCarmack The context seems to require some source of light, and I have provided a link to the definition of faggot. I doubt if the author intended us to envision a homosexual roasting on a spit. You are at liberty to down-vote. (I didn't notice the comments in your link -- I just read the dictionary definition). | |
| Nov 24, 2016 at 23:47 | history | edited | Mick | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 14 characters in body
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| Nov 24, 2016 at 23:47 | comment | added | Mick | @AlanCarmack Well, if you have a better explanation... | |
| Nov 24, 2016 at 23:46 | comment | added | Alan Carmack | Faggot does not equal glimmer. Please adduce evidence that faggot can refer to a bundle of sticks making a weak source of light (as in a fire). Also, when is glimmer gray? | |
| Nov 24, 2016 at 23:35 | history | answered | Mick | CC BY-SA 3.0 |