i n f i n i t e    s u m m e r

Surely DFW knew that it's "fauteil roulant" not "de rollent." There were some other little things that caught my attention--can't re-find them all, but for example the construction "it made the shrill whistling sounds" is un-idiomatic. It can't just be sloppiness, can it? (Source: I was in the French school system through high school, which granted is a long time ago...) I wondered if some could be chalked up to French-Canadian dialect, but rollent at least is plain wrong. Any ideas??

Hilary

I don't know enough about French to know if this is some kind of little joke he is making. I think that DFW plays around with words sometimes (including incorrect grammar/usage), which I enjoy; he plays around with the French-English stuff quite a bit. ( I mentioned a couple things here.) On p 89 he mentions that the organization is called Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents, so it seems he knows the difference. And on p 36 he refers to the anniversaire false cognate.

It kinda reminds me how people will jokingly say "carpe the diem," or how growing up we would pronounce faux pas as 'fox pass'.

Thanks Troybob--that's actually one I'd forgotten about, because it means "Assassins OF rolling chairs" (except that "rollent" is not a French word at all). And having lost my way in Endnote 304, I found the other glaring one I'd forgotten: Thierry as a woman's name. Easy mistake to make if you think of it as Terry, but it's actually more like Jeffrey--ie very much a male name and jarring to hear with a female pronoun.

Yes, it could be DFW playing around.... but very few English speakers would get the joke. I am still puzzled.

Dunno what the answer is. But maybe it's the difference between the French spoken in Quebec and Paris?

I have a huge theory about this and Rolle's Theorem. Let's not forget that Wallace started life as a mathematician (kind of!) We talked about it at some length on Howling Fantods like a zillion years ago. But I think I will be spoilin' if I say too much more (?) I've made a note to revisit.