Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Historians just don't get it

Fortuna has spun her dread wheel such that I have been reading rather a lot of historiography on 17th-19th century Japan of late. Perhaps this is in some way connected to my enrolling in an English historiography of 17th-19th century Japan course, perhaps not; I'm not one to question the ways of Fortuna. In any case, late last night I was reading about the development of new class relations in farming villages during this time period, when I found this little gem of accidental double-entendre:

"What proportion of domestic industry was organized after this fashion under the putting-out system by the late Tokugawa period is impossible to say, but there is evidence of the system on every hand, in nearly every important industry."

This led me to imagine the folowing dialogue.

Historian A: Dude.
Historian B: What?
Historian A: Dude, I totally scored a date with Jenny for Friday night.
Historian B: WHAT? You lucky son-of-a - Man, I hear that she organizes her industry under the putting-out system fo' shizzle!
Historian A: Dogg, there is evidence of this system on every hand.

*Congratulatory high-five is attempted, but goes awry, causing both historians to giggle nervously before parting.*

fin

5 Comments:

At 3:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for making me smile, as usual. :-) I hope you had a good Valentines Day.

Kara

 
At 12:28 AM, Blogger M' Lady's Topsail said...

That's awesome!

 
At 1:26 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

That is great

 
At 3:30 AM, Blogger Don Gately said...

The great thing about that passage is that, while presumably written by a native speaker of English, the putting-out part reads as something translated into Japanese and back into English. It is borderline Engrish!

 
At 6:45 PM, Blogger Flannery said...

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