I think in some ways "garden variety", for example to be very literal, tomatoes, is used to distinguish these things, emotions, vegetables , etc from those that are "hot-house variety",. In the case of vegetables this would be tomatoes produced out of season, costing more, requiring more effort, etc. It could also, in the case of flowers mean more exotic and it seems to me that women in certain detective novels were referred to as hot-house blooms to give this kind of idea. If we look at it this way, anything that is garden variety is sturdier, more able to survive in the ordinary world ,whereas the hot-house kind might wither and die in a cold draught.

JD

imagine a scenario in which one is discussing, dismissively, the sense of some adolescents that their personal existential suffering is somehow exceptional; one might then talk about "garden variety anguish"

Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 16:13:30 +0200
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: garden-variety
To: [log in to unmask]

Film does figure here - it is N. Carroll that uses 'garden variety' when speaking about emotions in film (just to distinguish 'basic emotions', commonly spoken about, from other kinds of complex, not easy to describe, emotions).

Now, thou the common rhetorical force of 'garden variety' may be to minimize the importance of 'garden variety things', it is not the case in recent philosophical texts - 'garden variety' marks well researched and generally known things, without implication that they are less important. It is particular context that activates this or that connotative valency of the word, and my translation problem have been how to ensure the context where Croatian 'obični' for 'garden variety' in new philosophycal use would not imply 'plain', and wolud not loose the 'colorfulness' of the English idiom.

Hrvoje

while film doesn't figure here, i hope filmosophers will find this worth pursuing a bit - if not we can continue off list

hrvoje writes:

We have 'običan', its English equivalent is 'common', 'plain' - and it is obviously quite close to the concept of garden variety, though this 'plain' aspect of 'običan' is not what is ment when the 'garden-variety emotions' are spoken about (they are common, but not plain).

and i wonder if we might see this term "običan" as closer to "garden variety" than he suspects . . . specifically, in garden variety american speech one can -- especially if one wants to minimize its seriousness - talk, for example, about "garden variety" emotion . . . imagine a scenario in which one is discussing, dismissively, the sense of some adolescents that their personal existential suffering is somehow exceptional; one might then talk about "garden variety anguish"

the rhetorical force of "garden variety" is to suggest that the thing being thus labeled is not worth special notice, a way of minimizing the claim of something to be exceptional - and it's possible that "običan" does this in creation . . . perhaps hrvoje can comment

mike

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