<div dir="ltr">> 

<i><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial">a new kind of journalism ... to drive the ... </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial">New Statesman </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial">and </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial">Spectator</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial"> off the stage, </span></i><div><span style="font-style:italic;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial">> and usurp the </span><font color="#000000" face="Arial" style="font-style:italic">pretence-new of the pseudo-American</font><br><font color="#000000" face="Arial"><br>I'm only guessing, but I'll jump in:<br><br>The <i>pretence-new </i>is the most intriguing part of the phrasing, to my eye.  Could this be a Frenchified way of saying "the new pretension", constructing pretension in the phrase itself?  <br><br>If so, then the aim is to take over the new pretension of the pseudo-American -- which I read as saying to take over a recently fashionable stance of trying to sound American.  What it would mean to take this over -- 'to adopt that position themselves' seems unlikely, and 'usurp', with its connotations of an unjust action, seems an odd choice -- I couldn't say.<br><br>I don't know enough about the context to know whether this is reasonable, but I prefer it to the "Americans are crass" interpretation :-)<br><br>(Reminds me of a tedious trip to London on a *packed* train during which a rude American in the window seats of our row of three -- I was on the aisle -- talked non-stop to her travelling companion, who faced her from the adjacent row of three.  We heard all about her -- they were bassoonists in an orchestra together, and, among other things, she told tuba jokes -- because she didn't shut up except for a brief respite when she went to the toilet, and her subject was mainly herself.<br><br>I didn't say anything.  But when we stepped off the train at Waterloo, I said to the British people who'd occupied the other 3 seats in our 6-person group, "We're not all like that" -- and they absolutely cracked up!)<br><br>Mary Ellen</font></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Sep 16, 2020 at 12:36 AM 陈栩 via Vwoolf <<a href="mailto:vwoolf@lists.osu.edu" target="_blank">vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="line-height:1.7;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:14px;font-family:Arial"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline;float:none;font-family:Arial;font-size:24px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">Dear friends,</span><br></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline;float:none;font-family:Arial;font-size:24px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">   It is the first time that I have come here for help.</span></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline;float:none;font-family:Arial;font-size:24px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">I have some difficulty in understanding the red short quotations that I am using in my writing as is attached below. <span style="float:none;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial;font-size:24px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;display:inline">I wonder if you could help me clarify them? </span>They are parts of Lehmann's journal taken from page 84 in his biography <i>John Lehmann: A Pagan Adventure</i>:</span></div><div style="text-align:left;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:14px;font-variant:normal;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal"><span style="text-align:left;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:24px;font-variant:normal;word-spacing:0px;display:inline;white-space:normal;float:none;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">

<p style="line-height:150%"><span><b>Wanted: a new kind of journalism in London to drive the elderly softnesses
and condescensions of the </b><i><b>New Statesman </b></i><b>and </b><i><b>Spectator</b></i><b> off the
stage, and usurp the </b><span><b>pretence-new of the pseudo-American</b></span><b>;</b></span></p>

<p style="line-height:150%"><span><b>Wanted: a new kind of art to blow the spunkless complacencies of Bloomsbury
sky-high;</b></span></p>

<p style="line-height:150%"><span><b>Wanted: a new kind of writing that has really caught a spark from the true
machine of modern life, the machine </b><span><b>in the terrible
powerhouse just off the boulevard</b></span></span></p>

</span><p style="line-height:150%"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline;float:none;font-family:Arial;font-size:24px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">The context is Lehmann's conflicts with the Woolfs which trigger his departure from Hogarth in 1932 and also consolidate his determination to launch a magazine which turns out to be<i> New Writing</i>.  So my questions are</span></p></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline;float:none;font-family:Arial;font-size:24px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">1. What does the "pretence-new of the pseudo-American" mean in the first item? It seems most puzzling.</span></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline;float:none;font-family:Arial;font-size:24px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px">2. Do you think the powerhouse just off the boulevard might refer to Hogarth Press or probably the Bloomsbury Group? I'm afraid it should be a symbol here.</span></div><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Arial;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline;float:none;font-family:Arial;font-size:24px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"> Thank you very much.</span></div><div style="text-align:left;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal"><font size="5" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">All the best,</font></div><div style="text-align:left;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-transform:none;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:400;text-decoration:none;word-spacing:0px;white-space:normal"><font size="5" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Chen Xu</font></div><p style="margin:0px"><font size="5"></font><br><b></b><i></i><u></u><strike></strike><br></p><p style="margin:0px"><b></b><i></i><u></u><strike></strike><br></p><p><b></b><i></i><u></u><strike></strike><br></p><b></b><i></i><u></u><strike></strike><br><br><br><br><br><div id="gmail-m_-37248914344585432gmail-m_5265861499125597679dvLetterAngle"></div><div style="zoom:1"></div></div><br>_______________________________________________<br>
Vwoolf mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:Vwoolf@lists.osu.edu" target="_blank">Vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</a><br>
<a href="https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://lists.osu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf</a><br>
</blockquote></div>