Frank Zappa Appreciation Thread

[Terrapin_Station]

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

Well, this thread certainly spun off in an unexpected diriection, and since p36 it makes for some interesting reading. If I may add a couple of comments:

I got lost in some of the pages of rarified semantics and debating points, but I agree with Guybrush's assessment of FZ; the man, the conduct, the lyrics put together suggest a genuinely-held mysoginistic attitude imo.

I would dispute both sentences in this post, Terrapin:-



i) "Slut" is negatively judgemental, at least in the UK. For that reason, "You're a slut!" is used as strong insult, intended to shock and hurt. Like other insults, it is also sometimes used with a kind of jokey application between friends, the way you might tell a buddy to "F off" without meaning it offensively. That special use, imo, doesn't alter the fact that the word "slut" can be read as negatively judgemental, unless there is context that makes clear otherwise.

ii) Surely this is exactly how meaning works? When we want to, we choose words that convey our judgement:
"That painting is colourful." = no judgement
"That painting is garish." = negative judgement
"He's a stallion" = approval
"He's a creep" = disapproval
Aren't those all examples of "necessary connotation"?

Meaning is subjective. It depends on what an individual has in mind, how the individual is thinking about the term in question. There's no necessary way to think about a term, positive, negative, or whatever.