Middlesex

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Perhaps perverse, but it seems like Middlesex would be an excellent novel in which to study the [i]middle voice[i].

On a first reading, I intend to pull all the instances of "get" that I don't miss. Afterwards, though, it's clear that Book I has a very interesting number of "pathetic fallacies" or "paysage d'état d'âme", doors, eyes, fires, all with a sense of sentient purpose !


Occurences of get

Agentive subject

Narrative

  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 11 | We may get another boy
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 11 | Now my mother gets up from the so-called love seat.
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 11 | Now my father gets up to make his rounds, turning out light, locking doors.
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 13 | Now, in the church basement, she told Chapter Eleven to run off and play with the other children while she got a cup of coffee to restore herself.
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 14 | He was trying to fill a coffee cup, but once he got the tap open he couldn't get it closed.
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 17 | Awakened by my parents rushing off to the hospital, he'd gotten out of bed and gone downstairs to make himself a cup of coffee.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 19 | (Her memoirs, which end shortly before her suicide, make unsatisfactory reading, and it was after finishing them years ago that I first got the idea to write my own.)
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 20 | I'm the final clause in a periodic sentence, and that sentence begins a long time ago, in another language, and you have to read it from the beginning to get to the end, which is my arrival.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 20 | She gets really fat again. (narrator rewinds the tape through pregnancy)
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 24 | At present, black silk ribbons were tied around the braids, too, making them even more imposing, if you got to see them, which few people did.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 30 | He knew that he was supposed to shout, to act offended, to pretend to take his business elsewhere. But he had gotten such a late start; the closing bell was about to sound.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 31 | He let himself get cajoled into playing, just one, then lost and had to go double or nothing.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 32-3 | Hung over and feverish, Lefty told himself that his sister was right: it was time for him to get married.
    • tough-structure
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 33 | He would have children and stop going down to Bursa and little by little he's change; he'd get older; everything he felt now would fade into memory and then into nothing.
    • future in the past, complement includes comparative head -er.
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 43 | Afraid to get out of bed, he sent the barber away, forgetting his morning shave.
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 49 | When you got away from the quay you could almost forget that there was a crisis on.
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 49 | When all his money was gone, Lefty got up and said with disgusted anger, "Can I leave now?"

Conversation

  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 15 | "Did you get burned?"
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 15 | "He gets into everything."
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 23 | "Ev'ry morning, ev'ry evening, ain't we got fun"
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 23 | "In the meantime, in-between time, ain't we got fun"
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 23 | He was still singing -- "Not much money, Oh! but honey" -- fixing his cuff links, parting his hair; but then he looked up and saw his sister -- ain't we got" -- and pianissimo now -- fun" -- fell silent.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 24 | With a steady, determined voice, he'd answered, "I'm trying to get that feeling."
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 36 | Lucille's father welcomed him, then said, "We'll leave you two alone. To get acquainted."
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 43 | "Where can we get a boat? In Constantinople?"
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 49 | "Maybe we'll be lucky tomorrow and geta ride. And when we get to Symrna, we'll get a boat to Athens" -- his voice tight, funny sounding, a few tones higher than normal -- "and from Athens we'll get a boat to America."

Non-human subject

Narrative

  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 6 | In the spring of 1959 when discussions of my fertilization got under way, my mother couldn't foresee that women would soon be burning their brassieres by the thousand.
  • Book I § The Silver Spoon § 15 | Standing at the window, my brother wanted more than anything to believe in an American God who got resurrected on the right day.
  • Book I § Matchmaking § 31 | His prayer begins with words he learned as a child [...], but soon it vers off, becoming personal with [...] and then turning a little accusatory, praying [...] but getting abject finally with [...] eyes squeezed shut, hands bending the derby's brim, the words dripting up with the incense toward a Christ-in-progress.
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 54 | [T]here are other faces pressed to slats, Armenian, Bulgarian and Greek eyes peeking out of hideaways and attics to get<b> a look at</i> the conqueror and divine his intentions; [...]

Conversation

  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 47 | The wound was on the man's thumb, where the nail was missing. [--]"How did this happen?" [--]"First the Greeks invaded," the refugee said. "Then the Turks invaded back. My hand <i><b>got in the way."
  • Book I § An Immodest Proposal § 52 | "Look at those poor wretches. Left to fend for themselves. when word gets out about the Greek commissioner's leaving, it's going to be pandemonium."