On Sun, 15 Oct 2000, Matthew Francis wrote...
>But the line about the borrowed chair bothers me - it really
>doesn't seem very important, and my first thought was that it was a bit of
>padding, there for the rhyme etc.
Oh, I have no doubt about the importance of "borrowed"; I'm just not
entirely sure what to make of it. Some suggestions, any or all of which
may be complete bunkum...
Since the waiter is neither owner nor customer, he has borrowed the
chair in a way that sets him apart. Waiters eating in restaurants always
look different from customers, a little out of place. He's also borrowed
the chair to make use of in his little piece of play-acting, which apart
from the religious symbolism, is also on a literal level a rather
charming way of suggesting to the diners that perhaps it's about time
they thought of departing. Borrowed time. As Christ figure, the human
form is in a sense borrowed, being adopted for a specific purpose for a
little while. Again, a bit separate, a bit out of place. Borrowed time.
As vicarious Christ figure, the waiter is borrowing the persona of
Christ, and on another level, he is borrowing the accoutrements of the
Mass.
'chair' as conventional term for official position, of course. As in
"The Kingsley Amis Chair of Dogmatic Theology at Cowley University" [1]
'Simply' can be read as either 'just, no more than' or as 'in a simple
and uncomplicated manner' I think it makes sense both ways, though there
is an irony in the first. There's a playful suggestion by Muldoon of
"Well, I've made you think about religious symbolism, but all that
actually happened was that the waiter ate a meal."
Best,
--
Peter
http://www.hphoward.demon.co.uk/poetry/
[1] It's in "The Alteration". A.J. Ayer holds it.
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