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Rifleman
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| Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 3:18 am
Post subject: Parallel traveler? |
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"You a beliver?"
"No. Parallel traveler. You make do with what you have."
In the above, the use of 'parallel' is puzzling to me. Is it only an
adjective with the meaning of 'similiar'.? Or, does the 'parallel traveler
have any other idiomatic meaning?
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Tony Cooper
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 3:42 am
Post subject: Re: Parallel traveler? |
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The person is saying that he follows a similar path, but not the same
path. |
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Robin Bignall
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| Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 4:02 am
Post subject: Re: Parallel traveler? |
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I'll make a guess, for I've not heard 'parallel traveller' used in any
well-known idiom.
The first speaker is a believer in some god, and presumably believes
that there's life after death. The second does not, and thinks that
this earthly life is all we have, and that you have to make do with
it. Their lives are running in parallel in the sense that they're here
on earth and alive at the time of the conversation.
--
wrmst rgrds
Robin Bignall
Hertfordshire
England
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Rifleman
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 1:23 pm
Post subject: Re: Parallel traveler? |
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| Quote: | The person is saying that he follows a similar path, but not the same
path.
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Tony you mean he is a believer anyway, having only a little bit different
religion? What about the following traslation : he is a traveler going
parallel with a believer, never meeting with it, so he's nowhere near a
believer. Like you think, if he's a sort of a believer, could he possibly
say, "you make do with what you have"?
Thanks,
Rifleman |
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Don Phillipson
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 5:26 pm
Post subject: Re: Parallel traveler? |
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| Quote: | "You a beliver?"
"No. Parallel traveler. You make do with what you have."
In the above, the use of 'parallel' is puzzling to me.
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You may have misheard the phrase
Fellow Traveller, common about 30 years ago.
It usually identified people who did not want to
become members of the Communist Party but
who otherwise tended to support its policies.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada) |
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Tony Cooper
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 6:44 pm
Post subject: Re: Parallel traveler? |
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| Quote: | Tony you mean he is a believer anyway, having only a little bit different
religion? What about the following traslation : he is a traveler going
parallel with a believer, never meeting with it, so he's nowhere near a
believer. Like you think, if he's a sort of a believer, could he possibly
say, "you make do with what you have"? |
No, not necessarily a believer in a religion. Just a believer in
something. His path is parallel in that he also follows something but
not the same thing.
You are associating "parallel" with the geometry definition and not
the imagery definition. A writer's use of words don't necessarily
follow the technical meaning of words when the writer is trying to
produce an image of something.
Think of two people that end up as leaders of - |
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Tony Cooper
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 6:58 pm
Post subject: Re: Parallel traveler? |
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| Quote: | Think of two people that end up as leaders of -
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Damn. Hit "send" by accident.
Think of two people that end of as leaders in politics or industry.
Both start from humble beginnings, work very hard to achieve their
position of leadership, and both sacrifice their personal lives to end
up at the top. They may be said to have taken parallel paths to
success, but there is nothing in that usage that indicates that their
paths were directly aligned and never meeting as would be true with
two parallel lines. The image is only that their paths had
similarities in how they got from one point (humble beginnings) to
another point (top of the pile).
When you "make do with what you have", you are utilizing whatever
assets you have. In the example above, one of leaders may have
utilized personal charm and charisma to succeed, and the other may
have utilized great intelligence. |
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Rifleman
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Sep 18, 2004 11:28 pm
Post subject: Re: Parallel traveler? |
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| Quote: | You may have misheard the phrase
Fellow Traveller, common about 30 years ago.
It usually identified people who did not want to
become members of the Communist Party but
who otherwise tended to support its policies.
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No, I just quoted the dialogue from a story book formally published.
Rifleman |
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