re HDL's emotional maturity and identical status

nils@math.uio.no nils at math.uio.no
Sat Sep 3 12:52:53 CEST 2005


Thanks to Elaine Ramshaw for a thoughtful and eloquent
contribution, re HDL's emotional maturity, their sense
of self-identity, &c. One is reminded of Daisy's nieces
April, May, June, who *sometimes* are portrayed as having
more distinct, or at least visually distinguishable, personalities:
one has a ponytail, another a moptop, the third has pigtails.
Can we imagine HDL adopting slightly different visual
characteristics [apart from the colours of their caps]?
Different t-shirts, tattoos, piercing, eltonjohnian glasses?

Regarding self-identity, self-perception and "which is which?",
I'm as before reminded of Britten (ca. 1950, I believe), who
found the following description helpful:

First, April, she with mellow showers
Opens the way for early flowers,
Then after her comes smiling May,
In a more rich and sweet array,
Next enters June and brings us more
gems than those two that went before
Then, lastly, July comes and she
more wealth brings in than all those three;
April! May! June! July!

In a prospective initio-prepub-romantic HDL story, that most
of us hope will not be written, or at least not be officially
published, I suppose Phooey will get July. Somehow it doesn't
quite work as well, though, with

First, Huey, he with mellow showers
Opens the way for early flowers,
Then after him comes cunning Dewey,
In a more strong and tougher hooey,
Next enters Louie and brings us more
germs than those two that went before
Then, lastly, Phooey comes and he
more noise brings in than all those three;
Huey! Dewey! Louie! Phooey!

Nils Lid Hjort






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