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Census of recurrent terms in The Secret Scripture (2008)
| Allusions to ‘anecdotes’ and ‘anecdotes’ in The Secret Scripture (2008) |
| Anecdotes |
| 1] a love of secret memoirs and private anecdotes (Maria Edgeworth - epigraph); 2] a person without anecdotes [...] are more likely to be utterly lost [...] (Roseanne, p.11). 3] Often he knew the old soul that was to to be interred, and would share memories and anecdotes if that seemed pleasant and generous to do so. (Roseanne of her father, p.36). 4] I have made an anecdote out of the tragic death of my brother, for which, as is clear to me from the cooled syntax, I obviously blame myself. (Dr Grene, p.280.) |
| Memories |
| 1] [...] not killing himself [...] was a constant source of memory and joy, and I am sure consoled him (Roseanne of her father's motorbike racing; p.9);2] [...] those little called Neapolitan, which of course were not as I thought in memory of Napoleon, but songs invented in the streeets of Naples [...] (p.13.) 3] Dread like a sickness, a memory of a sickness, the first time in many years I had felt it. (p.28.) 4] Often he knew the old soul that was to to be interred, and would share memories and anecdotes if that seemed pleasant and generous to do so. (Roseanne of her father as graveyard keeper; p.36). 4] But he understood the rebellion. In his bedroom in a drawer he kept a memorial booklet for the Rising of 1916 with photographs of the principles involved, and a calendar of battles and sorrows. (Roseanne of her father's Irish patriotism; p.36.) 6] It is very stupefying to be Irish and have none of the traits or the memories or even a recognisable bloody accent. (Dr Grene of his Irishness; p.46.) 7] There is an underlying sense of rumour, of judgment, of memory, like two peoples that have once committed grave crimes against each other, but in another generation. (Dr. Grene on Anglo-Irish relations; p.47.) 8] Perhaps in later years I heard versions of that night that didn't fit my own memory of all, but all the same, there was always one grand constant, that I had stopped in my path to fetch Fr Gaunt [...] (Roseanne on the fatal incident; p.54.) 9] We used to go down to one of the little Cornish bays, my father and mother and myself [...] my nappies heavy with the water, a very vivid memory (Dr Grene on his own childhood, p.78.) 10] memories that I have of Fr Gaunt are always curiously precise and full (Roseanne, p.91.) 11] a lone person takes great comfort from her people, even in the watches of the night, even the memory of them (Roseanne, p.98). 12] Mrs McNulty, that is a beautiful description of traumatic memory. (p.101.) 13] I had this unbidden memory of my father sitting on his bed [...] (Roseanne, p.102.) 14] At first I wondered [...] was she, in the matter of her past, truly incapable of memory, that is, in some sense actually insane? (Dr Grene, p.120.) 15] to me she was not psychotic, but that her memory had suffered the silverfish of age. (Dr Grene, p.122.) 16] I have a vivid memory of his as if contained in a sort of photograph (Roseanne on Tom, p.132.) 17] I am looking for my mother in these memories and I cannot find her. She has simply disappeared. (Roseanne, p.148.) 18] I thought of windmills in paintings, he strange emotions even attaching to their memory. (Dr Grene, p.149.) 19] I was presenting a paper on versions of memory, the absolute fascist certainly of memory, the bullying oppression of memory. (Dr Grene, p.178.) 20] I will see how much of it I can write down from memory (Dr Grene on the Fr Gaunt's deposition, p.178.) 21] But memories are both long and short in Ireland (Dr Grene, 179.) 22] Needing to be brought again close to his memory, or any memory of him that seemed to make him more present (p.188.) 22] You look like her, or may your face has taken the place of hers in my memory (John Lavelle to Roseanne, p.190.) 23] I must admit there are memories in my head that are curious even to me [...] memory, I must suppose, if it is neglected becomes like a box room [...] (p.201.) 24] But if I put my faith in certain memories perhaps they will serve as stepping stones [across] the torrent of “times past” without being plunged entirely into it. (p.201.) They say the old at least have memories. I am not sure this is always a good thing. (Roseanne, p.201.) 25] I wonder is that the difficulty, that my memories and my imaginings are lying deeply in the same place? (Roseanne, p.219.) 26] that famous rose bred by Josephine in memory of Napoleon's love for her, “Souvenir de Malmaison” (Dr Grene, p.220.) 27] I have to be very careful with these memories because I realise there are a few vivid remembrances from this troubled time that I know in my heart cannot have happened. (Roseanne, p.254.) 28] Maybe this year there would be a new look to them, not quite St Anne's or “Malmaison”, but becoming slowly Sligo, “Souvenir de Sligo”, a memory of Sligo. (Dr Grene, p.23.) 29] wiping out the very nation they were trying to give new life to, actually burning memory in its boxes (Dr Grene on the burning of the Custom House, p.253.) 30] I have even a memory of him holding me while I wept (Roseanne of Fr Gaunt, p.266.) Now memory falters. Yes. It shudders, like a motor [...] (Roseanne remembering Eneas, p.266.) 31] Now memory stops It is entirely absent. [...] I remember Eneas coming in his army uniform one night, charming the staff into seeing me. (Roseanne, p.266.) 32] A memory so clear, so wonderful, so beyond the bounds of possibility. (Roseanne on re-meeting Eneas, p.267.) 33] Fr Gaunt, while maybe sincere in his great desire to have her committed, was also subject to mere error of memory (Dr Grene, p.278.) 34] We have enough problems with linear narrative and true memory. (Dr Grene on Roseanne and Fr Gaunt's memories of the same events, p.280.) 35] So that my first inclination to identify her memory as a traumatic one, with details transposed and corrupted, [...] (Dr Grene, p.280.) 36] It is just possible that years and years ago she told me about the hammers and feathers as an anecdote [...] actually seem to have a vague memory of it. (Dr Grene, p.280.) 37] I see now it would have been an assault on her memory. (Dr Grene, grateful that he did not use Fr Gaunt's deposition, p.281.) 38] I an beginning to wonder what is the nature of history. Is it only memory in decent sentences, and if so, how reliable is it? (Dr Grene, p.293.) The huge edifice immediately earthward, leaving only a hanging memory of its old positions against the skyline. (Dr Grene, observing the demolition of the asylum, p.297, p.297.) I was thinking I was quite over Bet, Bet was a safe memory, but it was only just beginning. (Dr Grene on grief, 297.) |
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Frequency count: 48 incidents of memor- (1 per 6.25 pages); note also 91 incidents of remember- (1 per 3.3 pages), and 4 incidents of anecdote- (1 per 75 pages.) [BS];
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| strand/Strand |
| 24 incidents - e.g., ‘a few strands of hair’ (p.35; cf. ‘last strands of dusty hair’, 189); ‘lost strand of the world’ (p.131); ‘It is along the strands of the world that the privilege of possessing children is most blatantly seen’ [beaches] (p.137; ‘Rosses Strand’ (p.138); ‘a great fear of being stuck there, stranded [...] (p.250); ‘cars coming out from Sligo along the glistening strand’ (p.300). |
| young men |
| They were all young men and the man being carried was no more I would guess than seventeen. [...]. (IRA-men, carrying in a wounded companion, p.37.) The civil war that followed caused further mayhem to the kindly instincts of young men in Sligo. (p.179.) They were young men trying to avenge a great wrong, and young men are excitable and sometimes clumsy. (The killers of Roseanne’s father, p.180.) |
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