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Hunk Posted 20 years ago
Linguistics Studies
veteran bore
Hello, I need help in understanding the following passage from The Great Gatsby, and I hope this is the right forum to post my questions.
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought—frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.
Please explain the parts I highlighted above. 1. Is a verteran bore someone very boring, in which veteran is an intensifier? 2. Does it mean I got to know secrets of people who are wild and whom I didn't even know? 3.When I sometimes forgot about my own moral superiority I would reserve my judgements because I was afraid of missing something?
Thank you very much.
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that. In consequence, I’m inclined to reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret griefs of wild, unknown men. Most of the confidences were unsought—frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation, or a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parcelled out unequally at birth.
Please explain the parts I highlighted above. 1. Is a verteran bore someone very boring, in which veteran is an intensifier? 2. Does it mean I got to know secrets of people who are wild and whom I didn't even know? 3.When I sometimes forgot about my own moral superiority I would reserve my judgements because I was afraid of missing something?
Thank you very much.
Top answer
A veteran bore is one who has been a bore for a long time. Because he was such a good listener and reserved judgment when listening to people, "abnormal, wild, unknown" people would tell him their "secret griefs" -- what in life has hurt them and their weaknesses. At the beginning of this passage, the father says "...
- A veteran bore is one who has been a bore for a long time.
- Because he was such a good listener and reserved judgment when listening to people, "abnormal, wild, unknown" people would tell him their "secret griefs" -- what in life has hurt them and their weaknesses.
- At the beginning of this passage, the father says "...
- " And at the end, the son is saying that he has to remember his superior sense and continue to be nonjudgemental so as to pick up everything that people might want to tell him.
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7 Answers
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A veteran bore is one who has been a bore for a long time.
Because he was such a good listener and reserved judgment when listening to people, "abnormal, wild, unknown" people would tell him their "secret griefs" -- what in life has hurt them and their weaknesses.
At the beginning of this passage, the father says "... just remember that all the people in this world haven't had t
Because he was such a good listener and reserved judgment when listening to people, "abnormal, wild, unknown" people would tell him their "secret griefs" -- what in life has hurt them and their weaknesses.
At the beginning of this passage, the father says "... just remember that all the people in this world haven't had t
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Ohhhhh, I get it. Thank you so much rvw. Veteran bore is not a term people frequently use, is it?
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I'm sure veteran as an adjective is much more common in writing than in speech.
The adjective veteran (from the Latin veter, meaning old) means: having had long experience or practice. ---dictionary.com
The adjective veteran (from the Latin veter, meaning old) means: having had long experience or practice. ---dictionary.com
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0 Yes, a veteran bore is an immensely boring situation. Imagine being lectured by your father. I think in the second query, the wild men are unknown by the proletariat. Fundamental decencies are not distrubuted to all people at the same level. Many people, as i'm sure you well know, have no sense of fundamental decency whatsoever, while others have more than their fair share. 0-
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My teacher gave that book yestardy and i was suppose to read each chapter when i get an assignment about the chapter so i wonder if you know this question what is fundamental decencies you'll find this in the first page at the bottom line oh if you wanna know the teacher and send a message about thebook go to armour.k12.sd.us
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AnonymousMy teacher gave that book yestardy and i was suppose to read each chapter when i get an assignment about the chapter so i wonder if you know this question what is fundamental decencies you'll find this in the first page at the bottom line oh if you wanna know the teacher and send a message about thebook go to armour.k12.sd.us????
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