Robert B.Parkerの探偵小説 "Sixkill" を読み始めました。これでParkerの探偵小説を読むのは5冊目。最初の引用は主人公のSpencerが被害者の兄弟に質問をしているところからです。
"So how's school?" I said.
"Everybody thinks Harvard is so hard. It's no harder than anyplace else. All you got to do is study."
"Which you do," I said.
"Enough to get by," he said.
"It engages you," I said.
"Yeah," he said. "Economics is pretty interesting. I mean, the whole deal with money. Money is something we've made up, you know, because barter is clumsy... It's smoke and mirrors."
"I've always suspected as much," I said. "Can we talk about your sister?"
"smoke and mirrors" は既に（3/17/2016）取り上げましたが、語源が気になり、調べるとThe Word Detectiveに次の説明がありました。少し長いのですが、全文を引用します。
Dear Word Detective: "Smoke and mirrors" means to distort the truth? I heard that it originated from carnies, having to do with tricks of the circus. -- Kody Laurentia.
Close, but no cigar. Anybody got a spare rim shot? You know, this column would have been much more fun as a vaudeville show. Maybe it's not too late. I have some dancing dogs, after all, not to mention a cat named Gus who climbs up on his Kitty Kondo every evening and chases his tail for twenty minutes at a time. And if that doesn't sound like quality entertainment to you, you clearly don't live in rural Ohio.
"Smoke and mirrors" does indeed mean a distortion of the truth, specifically the use of deception, distraction and illusion to convince and manipulate. "Smoke and mirrors" is commonly used in a political context, often by one side to describe the plans and statements of their opponents, although anyone who has ever bought a used car has also probably encountered a barrage of "smoke and mirrors." To say that someone's argument or proclamation is "smoke and mirrors" is to say that it lacks substance and is deliberately deceptive, using fancy footwork and glib patter to disguise the fact that what is being sold is a dud.
The allusion in "smoke and mirrors" is to a magician's stage act, particularly during a dramatic trick such as pulling a rabbit from a hat or sawing a volunteer in half. The climax of such stunts is usually accompanied by some sort of flourish, be it a puff of smoke or a simple "Voila!", that serves to distract the audience. The trick itself may depend on the clever placement of mirrors to make the impossible appear a fait accompli.
But while the reference is to magic, "smoke and mirrors" was coined in the political context, by the great (notwithstanding his strange antipathy toward dogs) New York City newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin. In his 1975 book "How the Good Guys Finally Won, Notes from an Impeachment Summer," Breslin wrote, "All political power is primarily an illusion. Mirrors and blue smoke, beautiful blue smoke rolling over the surface of highly polished mirrors, first a thin veil of blue smoke, then a thick cloud that suddenly dissolves into wisps of blue smoke, the mirrors catching it all, bouncing it back and forth. ... If somebody tells you how to look, there can be seen in the smoke great, magnificent shapes, castles and kingdoms, and maybe they can be yours."
言葉に詳しい人なので表現も多彩ですね。この説明文の前半に出てきた "no cigar" と "rim shot"
も気になる表現ですね。"no cigar" は次回、 "rim shot" は最近読んだReader's Digestにも出てきたので、その記事と共に取り上げます。
"So how's school?" I said.
"Everybody thinks Harvard is so hard. It's no harder than anyplace else. All you got to do is study."
"Which you do," I said.
"Enough to get by," he said.
"It engages you," I said.
"Yeah," he said. "Economics is pretty interesting. I mean, the whole deal with money. Money is something we've made up, you know, because barter is clumsy... It's smoke and mirrors."
"I've always suspected as much," I said. "Can we talk about your sister?"
"smoke and mirrors" は既に（3/17/2016）取り上げましたが、語源が気になり、調べるとThe Word Detectiveに次の説明がありました。少し長いのですが、全文を引用します。
Dear Word Detective: "Smoke and mirrors" means to distort the truth? I heard that it originated from carnies, having to do with tricks of the circus. -- Kody Laurentia.
Close, but no cigar. Anybody got a spare rim shot? You know, this column would have been much more fun as a vaudeville show. Maybe it's not too late. I have some dancing dogs, after all, not to mention a cat named Gus who climbs up on his Kitty Kondo every evening and chases his tail for twenty minutes at a time. And if that doesn't sound like quality entertainment to you, you clearly don't live in rural Ohio.
"Smoke and mirrors" does indeed mean a distortion of the truth, specifically the use of deception, distraction and illusion to convince and manipulate. "Smoke and mirrors" is commonly used in a political context, often by one side to describe the plans and statements of their opponents, although anyone who has ever bought a used car has also probably encountered a barrage of "smoke and mirrors." To say that someone's argument or proclamation is "smoke and mirrors" is to say that it lacks substance and is deliberately deceptive, using fancy footwork and glib patter to disguise the fact that what is being sold is a dud.
The allusion in "smoke and mirrors" is to a magician's stage act, particularly during a dramatic trick such as pulling a rabbit from a hat or sawing a volunteer in half. The climax of such stunts is usually accompanied by some sort of flourish, be it a puff of smoke or a simple "Voila!", that serves to distract the audience. The trick itself may depend on the clever placement of mirrors to make the impossible appear a fait accompli.
But while the reference is to magic, "smoke and mirrors" was coined in the political context, by the great (notwithstanding his strange antipathy toward dogs) New York City newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin. In his 1975 book "How the Good Guys Finally Won, Notes from an Impeachment Summer," Breslin wrote, "All political power is primarily an illusion. Mirrors and blue smoke, beautiful blue smoke rolling over the surface of highly polished mirrors, first a thin veil of blue smoke, then a thick cloud that suddenly dissolves into wisps of blue smoke, the mirrors catching it all, bouncing it back and forth. ... If somebody tells you how to look, there can be seen in the smoke great, magnificent shapes, castles and kingdoms, and maybe they can be yours."
言葉に詳しい人なので表現も多彩ですね。この説明文の前半に出てきた "no cigar" と "rim shot"
も気になる表現ですね。"no cigar" は次回、 "rim shot" は最近読んだReader's Digestにも出てきたので、その記事と共に取り上げます。
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