The Man from Earth · 2007 — 第 6 / 18 章 · 3'52" · C1

John's Farewell Talk, Explained:You can't go home again

The talk is pushed on: it is interesting and makes "a certain amount of sense," then called logic from "absurd premises." Home at five was Little Rock. The market's direction is "I don't know." What stuck is a gas station and a field. "You can't go home again" follows, because that place "isn't there anymore."

あらすじ

Someone is told to go on. A Van Gogh gift and a pig farmer named Jacques Bourne come up, then a Little Rock childhood that will not sit on a map. Later the talk turns to leaving once someone's not aging becomes a topic, to passing as one's own son, and to a year in jail in Belgium in 1862. What is left is why.

StorytellingGoodbyes & funeralsExplainingConfessingC1mediumamericanClean
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注目の表現

a certain amount of senseabsurd premisesstuck in your mindYou can't go home again

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このシーンの表現

You can't go home again

the old home no longer exists

After the place is called built up, the next line brings in You can't go home again and supplies the cause: it is not there anymore.

You can't go home again; our street is a parking garage now.

このシーンの他の表現

  • a certain amount of sense

    partly logical, not fully

  • absurd premises

    starting points that are absurd

  • stuck in your mind

    stayed in memory

  • unlearn

    let go of what one learned

  • passed as

    be accepted as someone else

このシーンのメモ一覧

80 行のセリフに 30 件のメモ

表現 · B1done with something

finished with that topic

Come on, I thought we were done with that.
表現 · B2a certain amount of something

partly logical, not fully

Someone refuses to drop the subject and grants only partial logic, enough to keep people listening.

Besides, I think he's making a certain amount of sense.
発音amount of sense

Let the end of amount run into of without a separate beat.

Besides, I think he's making a certain amount of sense.
表現 · C1absurd premises

starting points that are absurd

Right after a partial defense, someone compares the talk to neat logic built on a ridiculous start.

Like Hegel. Logic from absurd premises.
表現 · B1work with one's hands

earn a living by manual work

I like to work with my hands.
発音would have loved

Keep have lighter than would and loved.

He would have loved them, though.
表現 · C1tepid lectures

lectures too dull to warm to lukewarm, meaning the lectures were dull

I learned that in- professor Hensen's tepid lectures.
発音Little Rock

Tap the t inside Little; don't stop dead on it.

Little Rock.
表現 · B2stick in one's mind

stayed in memory

After direction and distance are asked, the next line is whether any references stuck in your mind. The phrase means stayed in memory. The references are the landmarks, not a street name.

Were there any references that stuck in your mind?
文法 · B1that stuck in your mind

relative clause: that limits which landmarks stayed remembered.

Were there any references that stuck in your mind?
表現 · B2be built up

covered over with buildings not feelings building up; new buildings

No. I'm sure it's all different and built up.
表現 · C1go home again

the childhood home is gone nobody is blocking him; the market and field are gone

Thus the saying "You can't go home again" Because it isn't there anymore.
表現 · C1on one's scale

by one's own measure not a map scale; his own measure

Picture it on my scale-
表現 · C1urban sprawl

a city spreading without an edge

My eye sees freeways, urban sprawl, Big Macs under the Eiffel tower.
表現 · A2bigger and bigger

growing larger without a stop

Early on, the world got bigger and bigger, and then...
表現 · B2move on

leave and begin somewhere else not changing the subject; leaving and starting over

As you've said, there's talk of my not aging, And when that happens, I move on.
文法 · C1my not aging

negative gerund: my not aging turns not growing older into the thing people discuss.

As you've said, there's talk of my not aging, And when that happens, I move on.
表現 · C1set up an identity

prepare another identity beforehand

Well, it might make sense to set up your next identity,
表現 · C1pass as someone

be taken for one's own son not passing a test; being accepted as that person

I've done that a few times, even passed as my own son.
スラング · B2busted

caught and exposed — Fine among friends for getting caught; skip it in formal writing.

On the other hand, I've been busted a few times.
表現 · C1fake an application

forging an official application

Spent a year in jail, Belgium, 1862 - I won't forget that - for faking a government application.
文法 · B2I won't forget that

parenthetical aside: The dashes park a feeling without changing the jail fact.

Spent a year in jail, Belgium, 1862 - I won't forget that - for faking a government application.
発音When'd you come

The d in When'd already holds did; don't open it again.

When'd you come to America?
表現 · A2right after something

immediately following an event

1890, right after Van Gogh's death, With some French immigrants...
表現 · B2not what someone thought

not the person others assumed

Wanted to say good-bye to you as me, not what you thought I was.
表現 · B1give someone a hand

offer practical help

The previous line is I've got boxes to move. The next is I'll give you a hand. give you a hand is practical help with that job, not a literal hand. The lines do not show who is speaking.

I'll give you a hand.
表現 · C1a memento to something

a keepsake of where one started

As a memento to your beginnings, even if you didn't have the concept of beginnings?
文法 · C1even if you didn't have the concept of beginnings

concessive clause: even if grants the missing concept and still asks why it stayed.

As a memento to your beginnings, even if you didn't have the concept of beginnings?
発音could have lied

Put the weight on lied and skim could have.

You could have lied about that.
表現 · A2while someone is gone

during the time someone is away

Don't talk about me while I'm gone.

「John's Farewell Talk」を読み解く

What's really going on

Ordinary questions open the memory test. Where did you live at five? Which way was the market? How far? What stuck in your mind? The answers are Little Rock, "I don't know," "three blocks," a gas station and a field. Would it be the same today? "No. I'm sure it's all different and built up." Thus the saying "You can't go home again," because "it isn't there anymore." "Picture it on my scale" turns that corner into migration through forests, mountains, tundra and canyons. Memory sees what was seen then. The eye sees "freeways, urban sprawl, Big Macs under the Eiffel tower." "Think what I've had to unlearn" names the gap. Talk of not aging leads to leaving, even passing as one's own son, or getting busted. Why say it? "A whim." Then: "Wanted to say good-bye to you as me, not what you thought I was."

Theme

MemoryThe direction to a childhood market cannot be recalled, and the line about memory seeing what was seen then no longer matches the freeways and sprawl the eye sees now.
IdentityLeaving starts when there is talk of not aging. The same stretch includes passing as one's own son, getting busted, and a goodbye as oneself.

発音のポイント

  • amount of sense — Let the end of amount run into of without a separate beat.
  • would have loved — Keep have lighter than would and loved.
  • Little Rock — Tap the t inside Little; don't stop dead on it.
  • When'd you come — The d in When'd already holds did; don't open it again.
Thus the saying "You can't go home again" Because it isn't there anymore.

Here the saying is literal: a childhood place would be built up now, so the home in memory is no longer there to return to.

My eye sees freeways, urban sprawl, Big Macs under the Eiffel tower.

What the eye sees now is roads, endless city, and a Big Mac under the Eiffel Tower, nothing like what memory kept.

Think what I've had to unlearn.

The world got bigger and then changed, so a mass of older knowledge had to be thrown out. This line names that job.

I've done that a few times, even passed as my own son.

This line says it has been done a few times, even passing as one's own son. The quoted words after it call that person Ben's son and an engineer, and call Ben a good man.

Wanted to say good-bye to you as me, not what you thought I was.

The reason given is a farewell as oneself, not as the person others thought they knew. It comes after the line "A whim. Maybe not such a good idea."

You could have lied about that.

It says the person could have lied about whatever was just mentioned. It does not identify what that refers to or whether the claim was false.

このシーンについての質問

Is "You can't go home again" about a mood or a place here?

A place. The answer just before it is that a return today would be "all different and built up." The line then states the saying because "it isn't there anymore." Nothing in the wording claims a change of feeling. The next line only says, "Picture it on my scale."

Why move on when people start to talk?

The line gives the trigger: “As you've said, there's talk of my not aging, And when that happens, I move on.” Just before, someone says, “And now you're moving on.” A later “Moving on” follows the 1890 Van Gogh line, but those lines do not show it is the same departure.

Why tell them any of this?

"Except one, John" leaves one question, and the next line asks it: "Why're you doing this?" What follows is "A whim. Maybe not such a good idea." Then "Wanted to say good-bye to you as me, not what you thought I was." Since it "isn't funny," the reply is that there might be "a very serious problem."

Does the Belgium jail line explain the earlier bust?

Not explicitly. It comes directly after “On the other hand, I've been busted a few times,” which follows “Saves trouble with credentials and references.” The full line is “Spent a year in jail, Belgium, 1862 - I won't forget that - for faking a government application.” The lines do not show whether the jail term is the same bust, or the same speaker.

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