Saturday, February 16, 2013

grammar - "On which to unload those most unbelievable yet haunting of fairy-tales"

I met the following line: "of listening ears on which to unload those most unbelievable yet haunting of fairy-tales" in the novel Waterland, written by Graham Swift.




I began, having recognized in my young but by no means carefree class the contagious symptoms of fear: ‘Once upon a time …’



Children, who will inherit the world. Children to whom, throughout history, stories have been told, chiefly but not always at bedtime, in order to quell restless thoughts; whose need of stories is matched only by the need adults have of children to tell stories to, of receptacles for their stock of fairy-tales, of listening ears on which to unload those most unbelievable yet haunting of fairy-tales, their own lives; children – they are going to separate you and me. Lewis has seen to it. Forgive this emotion. I do not deserve your protestations. (We need our Cricky and all that stuff of his.) I do not expect you to understand that after thirty-two years I have rolled you all into one and now I know the agonies of a mother robbed of her child.… But listen, listen. Your history teacher wishes to give you the complete and final version …



And since a fairy-tale must have a setting, a setting which, like the settings of all good fairy-tales, must be both palpable and unreal, let me tell you





Below, is the line which has prompted me to ask the following questions.




"whose need of stories is matched only by the need adults have of children to tell stories to, of receptacles for their stock of fairy-tales, of listening ears on which to unload those most unbelievable yet haunting of fairy-tales, their own lives"





  1. Does the sentence “... of listening ears on which to unload those most unbelievable yet haunting of fairy-tales ...” mean: "The adult have the need to unload those most unbelievable yet haunting of fairy-tales on the listening ears"?


  2. Does the word yet mean "used for emphasizing that someone or something is even bigger, better, worse, more etc than someone or something else" in yet haunting of fairy-tales?



  3. Is the word haunting an adjective?


  4. Does the word haunting mean "sad or beautiful in a way that is difficult to forget"


  5. Does the word "of" in “haunting of fairy-tales” have the same meaning as the word "of" in the sentence "It is very nice of you to say that"?


  6. Does the word "of" in "haunting of fairy-tales" mean "used to indicate that someone has behaved in a specified way"?




Thanks a lot for everyone's help in advance.

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