Talk:The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

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[edit] True Story?

"This is a true story(ha, ha, ha) no really, taken straight from the newspapers, (ha, ha) nothing has been changed but the words,(ha,ha)." Bob Dylan, Manchester Free Trade Hall, England, 1965.Lion King 00:49, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure I understand your remark. Are you doubting the veracity of the story, or just objecting to Dylan chuckling? -- Jmabel | Talk 19:14, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

I'ts not my remark, it's Dylan's. I'd be very interested to know what you make of it. Lion King 21:09, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

I don't particularly make anything of it, partly because the tone of laughter is not something easily conveyed on the written page. But, in any event, what I make of it would not be encyclopedic. -- Jmabel | Talk 05:28, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Philosophizing Disgrace?

Wikipedia entry: "Dylan's song strongly implies that his upper-class status contributed to the relatively low length of the sentence. However, after the sentence was announced, the New York Herald Tribune conjectured that Zantzinger was not given a longer sentence to keep him out of the state prison, since the notoriety of his crime would make him a marked target among its largely African American inmates (Zantzinger instead served his time in the comparative safety of the Washington county jail)."

Don't these couple of sentences just excuse the light sentence he was given? Is it the courts place to protect rich whites from poor blacks inside prison? OR should they protect poor blacks from rich whites outside prison? According to this description of the case, which I know little about, the judge made his decision that rich whites are more important than poor blacks. The quote above agrees with that judgement. This kind of justification of atrocities seems to be what Dylan is talking about when he says, "You who philosophize disgrace ...". It's ironic. One who philosophizes disgrace should not be writing this entry. It goes against the spirit invoked by the song. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.111.215.225 (talk • contribs) 4 June 2006.

Looks to me like the burden of the wording problem is entirely on the word "however", which suggests contrast where there is none. I will remove that word. - Jmabel | Talk 20:54, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Prosody?

My dictionary says it means "the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry, he theory or study of these patterns, or the rules governing them, the patterns of stress and intonation in a language". But this is a pretty obscure word (I'm a native English speaker with a reasonably large vocabulary and I had to look it up), and doesn't seem accurate. Is there a better word? Natalie 17:51, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

It is the correct technical term, though I agree it is a bit obscure. I can't think of another, though. And, yes, judging by your writing, the fact that you don't know the word counts for something. - Jmabel | Talk 22:47, 30 November 2006 (UTC)