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| Regard: the plantains with their queer familiar blooms, once emblematic of life, now of an evil phallic death – UTV, 65. |
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Cacti |
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Amate |
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| Yvonne's arms were full of bougainvillea … "Careful, Hugh, it's got spikes on it, and you have to look at everything carefully to be sure there're no spiders." – UTV, 141.
A brightly-flowering shrub, named for Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811), but now associated in the Consul's mind (having half-overheard the conversation) with the spikes and spiders of betrayal. |
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| During the week, when they were allowed to play, the course was deserted: yellow ragged sea poppies fluttered in the spiny sea grass. – UTV, 17.
The Glaucium genus is native to Europe, north Africa and southwest and central Asia, where the plants commonly grow on coasts and other saline habitats. Though there is no suggestion that Lowry was aware of the fact, Glaucium is also commonly known as 'horned poppy', giving an early (though perhaps unintentional) intimation of the cabrón and cuckoldry. |
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| Simple words, simple and terrible words, words which one took to the very bottom of one's being, words which, perhaps a final judgement on one, were nevertheless unproductive of any emotion whatsoever, unless a kind of colourless cold, a white agony... – UTV, 128.
A modern (and colourful) reference to UTV, in the above instance to be found at Lowry's gravestone in Ripe, Sussex. |