[continued from previous message]   
      
   take the reader through this house room by room.  You have also said   
   that you intentionally chose to present each room along with a   
   description of a (possibly abusive) memory associated with it.   
      
   The first room in Little George's house is the kitchen.  Little George   
   associates this room with having to wash dishes, while looking out the   
   window and wishing that he was some other place.  In real life, you were   
   also made to wash dishes.  This is not uncommon.  Most children 50 years   
   ago were given chores to perform.  I had chores to do as well.  The   
   difference is that I was paid a weekly allowance for doing them, and had   
   the option of quitting my "job" at my discretion.   
      
   In spite of your claim that you were taking the reader on a tour of   
   Little George's house (which has the same floorplan as your real life   
   childhood home), the narrative jumps from the kitchen to the garden.   
   I'm guessing that the garden stanza originally came before the kitchen   
   one, but that you later rearranged the stanzas to present the supposed   
   "abuses" in order of severity (as you have recently stated).  Little   
   George spends his summers working in the garden, all the while envious   
   of the neighborhood children who are free to play at their will.  The   
   fact that Little George calls their games "mysterious" and laments that   
   he "never knew" them implies both that he had to spend the entire day   
   doing chores and that he was not allowed to join the other children in   
   their games.   
      
   Was George Dance also forced to work in the garden all day/denied the   
   fun of playing with the other children?  I don't know.  I'm guessing   
   that he was, because many children had gardens that they tended every   
   day.  I certainly did.  I would spend an hour or so tending my garden   
   every morning -- along with my mother and siblings.  I loved my garden   
   and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  I was also allowed to play with   
   the local kids who would drop by on an almost daily basis.   
      
   Little George's next stanza opens with the line "That room's all   
   changed" implying either that the garden is a room, or that he is taking   
   the reader on a walking tour of his childhood house.  This appears to be   
   another problem caused by switching the kitchen and garden stanzas'   
   position in the narrative.  I'm assuming that it's the living room,   
   although Little George neither specifies nor gives us any other clue   
   than that it contains a chair on which he is forbidden to sit.  IIRC,   
   George Dance stated that while he was also barred from using the living   
   room furniture, the parental description of boys as "filthy things" was   
   derived from the life of another boy that he knew.   
      
   Last stop on the tour is the bedroom.  Little George is sent there after   
   dinner every night where he feels as if he is trapped within a tomb --   
   alone and forced to pass the time quietly playing by himself.  "Each   
   night" at 9pm, Little George was forced to turn out the lights, and lie   
   face down in bed with his pajama pants pulled down and his bare behind   
   awaiting his father's belt.  George Dance hasn't said that this bedtime   
   ritual occurred on a daily basis in real life, but has intimated that   
   the "spankings" (which he refused to call "whippings" even though the   
   blows were delivered with a belt) frequently took place.   
      
   So, pretty much the entire "flashback" portion of the poem was based on   
   real events from George Dance's childhood.  Some of the events may have   
   been slightly exaggerated, or enhanced, for dramatic purposes, and one   
   item was interpolated from another boy's stories about his own   
   childhood.  This leaves the "modern" portions of the narrative which   
   frame the flashback portion.  In the modern portion, it is strongly   
   implied (by George Dance's own explanation) that the speaker is   
   receiving some form of psychiatric care, and is probably residing in a   
   mental hospital. He has permission to leave the grounds during the day,   
   and (unrealistically) to visit his childhood home that is now occupied   
   by another family.  "Grownup George" ends the poem by expressing his   
   wish that he would like to burn his father's house to the ground.   
      
   The framing story, is obviously fictional insofar as real life George   
   Dance is not living in a mental institution, and is not (to the best of   
   my knowledge) undergoing psychiatric care.  It is, however, reasonable   
   to conclude that the author thinks of his childhood home as *his   
   father's house* and that he still harbors some anger toward his father   
   (even though his father is presumed to be deceased).   
      
   In short, the bulk of the narrative is based on real life memories from   
   its author's childhood.   
      
   Why then all the fuss about my having called it "autobiographical"?   
   It's a typical Straw Man argument intended to divert the discussion from   
   examining the psychological aspects of the narrative, and to falsely   
   represent an attempt to provide an in-depth analysis of the poem as a   
   personal attack upon himself.   
      
   Good old paranoid, perpetually persecuted George.   
      
      
   >> Eventually, you specified that only *one* passage in the portions of the   
   >> poem relating to your childhood had been inspired by something else.   
   >> IIRC it was the use of the term "boys can be such filthy things."   
   >   
   > More bullshit from HarryLiar. All the passages in the poem are about a   
   > grown man returning to his childhood home, and his thoughts while he was   
   > there. None of that was "inspired" by anything in my life.   
      
   That is a flat out lie, George.  You have already noted (numerous times)   
   that many of the events from the speaker's past have their basis in your   
   own childhood.  And, since you, as a writer, are also a grown man   
   reflecting on his childhood past, the fictional framing story portions   
   of your poem have a good deal of basis in reality as well,   
      
      
   >> But why bicker over words.   
   >   
   > Because words have meanings: when you claim the poem is   
   > "autobiographical", you're not just using a "word" but making a false   
   > claim about the poem (and dishonestly trying to support your claim by   
   > pretending that's a word I'd used to describe it).   
      
   I have not said that it was "autobiographical," George.  I have clearly   
   said that it was "largely autobiographical," "mostly autobiographical,"   
   "semi-autobiographical," "quasi-autobiographical," and the like.  That   
   is not a misrepresentation in any way, as you did have a house-in-a-box,   
   which you did help your father build, and which you did have to enter   
   through the backdoor, etc.   
      
      
   >> If you now wish to deny that any other portions of the poem were based   
   >> on your actual childhood experiences, please do so.   
   >   
   > Well, let's look at what happens in the poem.   
   > S1 - the speaker revisits the house (after getting permission from   
   > someone unspecified).   
   > S2 - the speaker remembers his father building the house.   
   > S3 - the speaker enters the back door, and remembers having to always   
   > have had to use that door.   
   > S4 - the speaker goes into the kitchen, and recalls having to wash   
   > dishes.   
   > S5 - the speaker looks out the kitchen window at the garden, and recalls   
   > having to work in it when he'd rather be playing.   
   > S6 - the speaker goes into the living room, and recalls not being   
   > allowed to sit  wherever he chose.   
   > S7 - the speaker thinks about his bedroom (but does not go there) and   
   > remembers being sent there to be alone after dinner until bedtime.   
   > S8 - the speaker continues to think about his bedroom, and remembers   
   > having an  early bedtime and being subject to corporal punishment.   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)