The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds by Neil Gaiman

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Avaddon
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#1

Сообщение Avaddon »

Listen up, big boys and girls, I'm going treat you to a funny short story. A spoof on hardboiled detective fiction, lots and lots of Idioms and plenty of allusions to nursery rhymes - what more can you want?

First and foremost, the story is free and can be read on author's website. It is one of Neil's very first stories, and, basically, he doesn't try to create something new here, but offers his readers a pastiche on Raymond Chandler peppered with a healthy dose of humor. What we have here is an overused classic private eye yarn about a damsel in distress who enters the dick's office door, and, quite obviously, the police are going to intimidate the sleuth into dropping the case, and, without a doubt, there will be a twist at the end. Did I mention that the dialog goes like this?
"I'm now investigating three deaths. The Fat Man's, Bernie Robin's and Dr. Foster's."
"Foster the plastic surgeon? His death was an accident."
"Sure. And your mother was married to your father."
What makes the story really amusing is that it is set in the world of nursery rhymes, and everybody has a rhyme or two about them. Isn't it fun to try to find all the references?

Let's begin at the beginning. The story is called
The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds
Four and Twenty Blackbirds is a line from a nursery rhyme called ''Sing a Song of Sixpence':
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Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened
The birds began to sing;
Wasn't that a dainty dish,
To set before the king.

The king was in his counting house,
Counting out his money;
The queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.

The maid was in the garden,
Hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird
And pecked off her nose.
So, my very first question is this: why the line sounds like "Four and twenty blackbirds" and not simply "Twenty four blackbirds"? What is the rule? Help us, the big boys in English language! [mention]Yety[/mention] [mention]Mike[/mention] [mention]JamesTheBond[/mention] [mention]Chaika[/mention]

Who is the protagonist? It turns out that it is Little Jack Horner from this rhyme:
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Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner,
Eating his (a) Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said, "What a good boy am I!"
Horner is asked to investigate the death of one Humpty Dumpty
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Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
Who, obviously, wasn't a nice guy. Here is his life story:
Humpty Dumpty was a bad egg. I remembered him when he was new in town, a smart young animal trainer with a nice line in training mice to run up clocks. He went to the bad pretty fast though; gambling, drink, women, it's the same story all over. A bright young kid thinks that the streets of Nurseryland are paved with gold, and by the time he finds out otherwise it's much too late.

Dumpty started off with extortions and robbery on a small scale - he trained up a team of spiders to scare little girls away from their curds and whey, which he'd pick up and sell on the black market. Then he moved onto blackmail -- the nastiest game. We crossed paths once, when I was hired by this young society kid - let's call him Georgie Porgie - to recover some compromising snaps of him kissing the girls and making them cry. I got the snaps, but I learned it wasn't healthy to mess with the Fat Man. And I don't make the same mistakes twice. Hell, in my line of work I can't afford to make the same mistakes once.

It's a tough world out there. I remember when Little Bo Peep first came to town...
It turns out that "A bad egg" is an idiom - and a pun.

Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's Dictionary (En-En)
bad egg

informal + somewhat old-fashioned : someone who does bad things
He was dishonest, but he was the only bad egg in the group.

The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms 2nd Ed
bad egg
An individual who turns out to be rotten, as in You can’t trust him—he’s simply a bad egg. Although egg had been used for various kinds of person (young, good, bad) since Shakespeare’s day, this transfer of a seemingly wholesome food that, when opened, turns out to be rotten took place only in the mid-1800s. An early definition appeared in The Atheneum of 1864: “A bad egg... a fellow who had not proved to be as good as his promise.” In contrast, the schoolyard saying Last one in is a rotten egg does not have any special significance other than as a way of urging others to join an activity, jump in the water, or the like.
mice to run up clocks
is an allusion to this famous rhyme:
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Hickory, dickory, dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory, dickory, dock
As for this allusion
he trained up a team of spiders to scare little girls away from their curds and whey, which he'd pick up and sell on the black market.
I've got no idea what to suggest. Can anybody lend me a hand?
Georgie Porgie - to recover some compromising snaps of him kissing the girls and making them cry. I got the snaps, but I learned it wasn't healthy to mess with the Fat Man.
is about this rhyme
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Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie,
Kissed the girls and made them cry,
When the boys came out to play,
Georgie Porgie ran away
And there is no need to introduce Little Bo Peep
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Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
and doesn't know where to find them;
leave them alone, And they'll come home,
wagging (bringing) their tails behind them.
So, what about other characters? Little Jack Horner meets with one Bernie Robin, and calls him ''Cock'. It's little wonder then that Cock is killed within a few seconds:
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Who killed Cock Robin?
I, said the Sparrow,
with my bow and arrow,
I killed Cock Robin.

Who saw him die?
I, said the Fly,
with my little eye,
I saw him die.

Who caught his blood?
I, said the Fish,
with my little dish,
I caught his blood.

Who'll make the shroud?
I, said the Beetle,
with my thread and needle,
I'll make the shroud.

Who'll dig his grave?
I, said the Owl,
with my little trowel,
I'll dig his grave.

Who'll be the parson?
I, said the Rook,
with my little book,
I'll be the parson.

Who'll be the clerk?
I, said the Lark,
if it's not in the dark,
I'll be the clerk.

Who'll carry the link?
I, said the Linnet,
I'll fetch it in a minute,
I'll carry the link.

Who'll be chief mourner?
I, said the Dove,
I mourn for my love,
I'll be chief mourner.

Who'll carry the coffin?
I, said the Kite,
if it's not through the night,
I'll carry the coffin.

Who'll bear the pall?
We, said the Wren,
both the cock and the hen,
We'll bear the pall.

Who'll sing a psalm?
I, said the Thrush,
as she sat on a bush,
I'll sing a psalm.

Who'll toll the bell?
I said the Bull,
because I can pull,
I'll toll the bell.

All the birds of the air
fell a-sighing and a-sobbing,
when they heard the bell toll
for poor Cock Robin.
And then there is a mention of Doctor Foster (who is also killed for some reason)
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Doctor Foster went to Gloucester,
In a shower of rain;
He stepped in a puddle,
Right up to his middle,
And never went there again.
God! Neil Gaiman has turned these merry rhymes into bloody carnage!

I will conclude this post with two idioms that ran one after another in a single sentence:
She smiled; my stomach twisted around once and went into orbit. "You get another two hundred if you get me those photographs. I want to be a nurse real bad." Then she dropped three fifties on my desk-top.

I let a devil-may-care grin play across my rugged face. "Say, sister, how about letting me take you out for dinner? I just came into some money."

She gave an involuntary shiver of anticipation and muttered something about h.... a t.... a.... midgets, so I knew I was o... a g... t..... Then she gave me a lopsided smile that would have made Albert Einstein drop a decimal point. "First find my brother's killer, Mr. Horner. And my photographs. Then we can play."
What are they?
За это сообщение автора Avaddon поблагодарили (всего 3):
JamesTheBond, Mary May, Yety
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#2

Сообщение Mary May »

spider
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Little Miss Muffet,
She sat on a tuffet,
Eating of curds and whey.
There came a great spider,
Who sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away.
За это сообщение автора Mary May поблагодарил:
Avaddon
Mary May
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#3

Сообщение Mary May »

Avaddon пишет: 04 июн 2018, 12:12 Neil Gaiman has turned these merry rhymes into bloody carnage!
Sometimes they originally were; just remember "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" or... it's on the tip of my tongue... about the church bells the convict hears on his way to the place of execution...
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What I referred to, is version #3 here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Mar ... e_Contrary
Eureka!
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Mary May
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#4

Сообщение Mary May »

За это сообщение автора Mary May поблагодарил:
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