Sarah Kane glossary

A glossary of terms used by Kane. I've included words and phrases which are gen erally obscure (ES3) as well as those which are not well known outside Britain ( Elland Road). Updates and queries are welcome. Also see the quotations page.

199714424 the meaning is not generally known. Simon Kane on the site the site discussion pages says only a few people know the actual meaning, though it is NOT a telepho ne number. A reasonable guess (by Jess on the site discussion pages) is that it is a number Kane was given as a patient in hospital (1997 being the year). Ano ther theory (by M on the site discussion pages) is that it refers to the year 19 97, the year of the love that killed Sarah, in N.Y. and then the other refers to the number of days spent together in an 24 hour day base. The Dutch performance s substituted a mobile phone number, which is probably most satisfying for the a udience. (Crave). 100 91 84 81... the doctors give the patient a simple arithmetic text. The patient is so confus ed/ drugged he/she gives answers slowly and incorrectly (4.48 Psychosis). 100 93 86 79... as for the previous entry, now however the patient is able to do the arithmetic, subtracting 7, easily. (4.48 Psychosis). Compare with Tennessee Williams' Sud denly Last Summer after a patient has been given an injection "Shall I start cou nting backwards from a hundred?... One hundred! Ninety-nine! Ninety-eight! Nin ety-seven! Ninety-six! Ninety-five- Oh!- A already feel it!" A Back to top A Levels English school exam (Blasted). anorexia a mental condition where someone starves themselves to become thinner (Crave). ASAP abbreviation for As Soon As Possible, meaning please be quick (4.48 Psychosis). aspirin commonly available drugs for headaches etc (4.48 Psychosis). aye yes (Blasted). B Back to top bagel a type of pastry (a food, something between bread and cake) (Crave). base 1, base 2, base 3, base 4, bingo "...could be a baseball/date success analogy, as used in lots of things. In base ball you run between the three bases then home, hence bingo! In the film Twins D anny DeVito describes a date like baseball, "Base 1, you hold hands. Base 2 you kiss. Base 3 you get a little feel, then Bingo!"- Jaidn on the site discussion p ages (Crave). bastard

insulting word for a person (Phaedra's Love). bender homosexual (Cleansed). besos brujos que me matan Spanish: The literal meaning is "Witches kisses that kill me". It means the kis ses are so loving that they go straight to the heart (Crave). Thanks to Pilar f or this and the other Spanish translations. Billyboy variant of Billy (Skin). bog public toilet, sometimes meeting place for homosexuals (Phaedra's Love). bits and bobs rubbish, junk (Phaedra's Love). brain and bollock, innard and eyelid... sausages traditionally are made up of (disgusting) waste meat (Skin). bric a brac rubbish, junk (Phaedra's Love). bubbly lively (Blasted). Bulgarian Cabernet Sauvignon a wine (4.48 Psychosis). bulimia a mental condition where someone eats little, then eats excessively, then forces themselves to vomit (Crave). C Back to top caps up, caps down instructions to use capitals (up) or stop using capitals (down) in the sentence, based on typewriters where the caps (capital) key was used (Blasted). cig cigarette (Blasted). citalopram an anti-depressant drug (4.48 Psychosis). clean slate beginning again without any previous problems (Crave). Col name of girlfriend (Blasted). cocksucker offensive term for a male homosexual (Blasted). coloured brethren offensive racist term for coloured people, copying politically correct language (Blasted). comma instructions to insert a comma (,) in the sentence (Blasted). conker offensive racist term for coloured people (Blasted). coon offensive racist term for coloured people (Blasted). copy ends end of the article for the newspaper (Blasted). coven a place for witches, so suggesting someone is as nasty as a witch (Blasted). coward's way out suicide (Crave). cracked (I think I've cracked it) I think I've solved it (Cleansed). Crown against the crown British courts enforce the law, which is formalised by the monarchy (the crown).

So if a royal person is charged with a crime, it is the crown (the laws) again st the crown (the royal person) (Phaedra's Love). cry blue murder to shout and scream and make a commotion (Crave). cum sperm (Phaedra's Love). cunt offensive term for someone (male or female, in this case male) (Blasted). D Back to top Danish a type of pastry (a food, something between bread and cake) (Crave). dash instructions to insert a dash (-) in the sentence (Blasted). dealer someone who sells drugs (Cleansed). dotted line across the throat in magazines advertisements which have to be cut out have dotted lines to guide the scissors. Here the phrase suggests a razor cutting a throat (4.48 Psychosis ). down under in Australia (Blasted). Dr. This and Dr. That and Dr. Whatsis she does not know the names of the doctors (4.48 Psychosis). du bist die Liebe meines Lebens German: You are the love of my life. A very common and sentimental phrase (Crav e). dyke offensive term for a lesbian (Blasted). dyskinesia see tardive dyskinesia (4.48 Psychosis). dysphoria medical term for the feeling that a person is other than his/her physical gender - a woman feeling more comfortable as a man or vice versa (4.48 Psychosis). E Back to top El dinero viene sola Spanish: The literal meaning is "Money comes alone". It means that someone who plays (gambles) because they need the money, will certainly lose. The phrase i s used by Lorca as well as other people (Crave). Elland Road home of Leeds football club (Blasted). ES3 Cleansed is dedicated "for the patients of ES3", the hospital ward Sarah Kane st ayed in (Cleansed and Crave). estas astravesada como el dia Miercoles Spanish: The Spanish is incorrect, astravesada should be atravesada. In the ori ginal edition dia was also incorrectly given as di. The literal meaning is "you are like a Wednesday". Possibly this is a joke, as the phrase which translates as "you are like a Thursday" means someone who is in the way, just as Thursday i s the middle day of the week. Maybe it takes the religious view and assumes Sun day is the first day of the week rather than Monday, making Wednesday the middle day. Alternatively, maybe the errors are deliberate "the translation was very bad" Crave p160 (Crave). F Back to top

fag cigarette (Crave). fiddled (kids getting fiddled) children being sexually molested (Blasted). Florent a 24 hour restaurant in New York (Crave). fluoxertine hydrochloride (Prozac) an anti-depressant drug (4.48 Psychosis). foreign affairs news from outside Britain (Blasted). Foreign Office British government department dealing with issues outside the United Kingdom (Bl asted). G Back to top gag for a fag desperate for a cigarette (Crave). gash See sucking gash. gay homosexual (Phaedra's Love). goldfish memory short memory, so someone who forgets quickly (Crave). gonorrhoea a sexual disease (Phaedra's Love). H Back to top ha ha ha sound of laughter (Crave). JMGK on the discussion forum says "...the text actua lly includes three lines: C: Ha ha ha B: Ho ho ho M: He he he To me this is remi niscent of the laughter on the Beatles' I am the Walrus, although the order on t he song is actually "Ho ho ho, He he he, Ha ha ha." I am not sure what the signi ficance of the connection is, except that there is death imagery in I am the Wal rus, or it could be another free association on Kane's part". halitosis bad breath (Phaedra's Love). hessian a type of cloth (Crave). hide-and-seek a childrens' game where one child hides and other tries to find him/her (Crave). home journalist journalist covering British (home) issues (Blasted). hypochondria excessive fear of illness and assuming one has a number of serious medical probl ems (4.48 Psychosis). I Back to top in den bergen, da fuhlst du dich frei German: It appears in English in T.S. Eliots The Waste Land as "in the mountains, there you feel free". The translation to German is a joke by Kane (Crave). Indian (I'll take you out for an Indian) A meal in an Indian restaurant, very common in Britain (Blasted). J Back to top jeben radoznale common Serbian slang: "If I find you to be one of those bastards excessively inq

uisitive about other people's affairs, I wouldn't hesitate to tell you Fuck the nosy." Thanks to Boban for this and the other Serbian translations. (Crave). joey offensive term for a mentally handicapped person (Blasted). K Back to top kid child (Blasted). the king is dead, long live the king a common phrase. When a king dies (the king is dead) his son immediately become s the new king (long live the king). It shows the fragility of life and the sur vival of institutions (the monarchy). Eugene Ionesco also uses the phrase in hi s play Le Roi Se Meurt (the king has died) (Crave). kleptomaniac someone who cant help stealing. A literary kleptomaniac is then someone who quot es other writers (4.48 Psychosis). L Back to top lesbos offensive term for a lesbian (Blasted). life in the old dog cliched phrase jokingly meaning the person may seem too old/weak to do anything, but is in fact still capable of action (Cleansed). lobotomy chemical lobotomy refers to the use of drugs (such as thorazine) to "cure" menta l illness, but the result can be worse than the illness (4.48 Psychosis). lofepramine an anti-depressant drug (4.48 Psychosis). M Back to top made her lick me clean forced her to give oral sex (Blasted). melleril an anti-depressant drug (4.48 Psychosis). meni ni iz dzepa, ni u dzep common Serbian slang: "If you want to tell me you're out of pocket or can't prof it from a situation whatever you do, perhaps I am none the richer would do well enough". (Crave). MNO MNO could mean the telephone number 6 (Jess on the site discussion pages). "I th ink that the telephone number is MNO and stops there (6). She doesn't want to ca ll anymore" (M on the site discussion pages). Another explanation is that it re presents police terminology for types of death "Murder, Natural death and Occasi onal death, though Kane has forgotten one letter, which is S, for Suicide" (site visitor Frida (Crave). N Back to top new par new paragraph (instruction to start the next sentence on a new paragraph) (Blast ed). nigger offensive racist term for a black person (Blasted). nod (given the nod) agreed to what was being said (Blasted).

O Back to top Official Secrets Act A contract which forbids people working in certain areas of the government or mi litary from divulging secrets (Blasted). Oxfam A British charity (Phaedra's Love). P Back to top paedophile someone who is sexually attracted to children (Crave). paki offensive racist term for an immigrant. Derived from Pakistan (Blasted). pale (beyond the pale) not acceptable, beyond what is acceptable (Crave). palsy a medical condition affecting the muscles (4.48 Psychosis). par paragraph (instruction to start the next sentence on a new paragraph) (Blasted). per se Latin phrase used in English meaning "as such". So "older than me, not older pe r se" means "looks and feels older than me, though may not be physically older" (Crave). perv perverted person (Cleansed). pig shit thick very very stupid (Phaedra's Love). piss (taking the piss) making fun of someone (Blasted). pissed drunk (Blasted). pleurococcus a green fungus (Phaedra's Love). point instructions to insert a full stop (.) in the sentence (Blasted). post coital after sex (Phaedra's Love). prick (making a prick of myself) making a fool of myself (Blasted). prozac an anti-depressant drug (4.48 Psychosis). puke vomit (Blasted). Q Back to top QED abbreviation of Latin (Qoud Erat Demonstandum- that which has been proven) origi nally used in English by mathematicians after a theory had been proven, nowadays meaning generally "it has just been proven correct" or "I was right" (Crave). Queens English English spoken very properly (Blasted). queer (sometimes offensive) term for a homosexual (Blasted). R Back to top retard

offensive term for a mentally handicapped person. Derived from retarded (Blasted ). RSVP abbreviations of French Respondez Sl Vous Plait. Initially used on formal invitati ons requesting a formal answer, now common slang for please reply (4.48 Psychosi s). Rudy's a restaurant (Crave). S Back to top sarky sarcastic (Blasted). sarnies sandwiches (Blasted). scouse someone from Liverpool (Blasted). scum worthless people (Phaedra's Love). screwing (still screwing the taxpayer) cheating (Blasted). serial killer murderer who kills more than one people on different occasions (Blasted). seroxat an anti-depressant drug (4.48 Psychosis). sertraline an anti-depressant drug (4.48 Psychosis). shag (a great shag) someone who gives good sex (Phaedra's Love). shag (wanted to shag me) wanted to have sex with me (Phaedra's Love). shit (who gives a shit) who cares (Blasted). shitless (bores you shitless) bores you very very much (Phaedra's Love). show trial a political trial where the result is decided in advance (Phaedra's Love). slag offensive term for a woman (Blasted). sleep with a dog and you wake with fleas a saying. You accept the consequences of your own actions (4.48 Psychosis). Solar Plexus a part of the body (Crave). sooty offensive racist term for coloured people (Blasted). spaz offensive term for a spastic, a mentally/ physically handicapped person (Blasted ). stroppy (dont get stroppy, Strophe) don't get argumentative, don't be difficult. There is also a play on the sound "dont get stroppy Strophe" (Phaedra's Love). sub-intentional death self harming which may lead to death (4.48 Psychosis). sucking gash giving a woman oral sex (Blasted). sunshine romantic sentimental name (Cleansed). sweetheart honey baby romantic sentimental names (Cleansed). T

Back to top tardive dementia a side-effect of the use of anti-depressant drugs causing mental problems (4.48 Psychosis). tardive dyskinesia a side-effect of the use of anti-depressant drugs. Symptoms include repetitive behaviour (4.48 Psychosis). tart prostitute, also offensive term for a woman (Blasted). tat rubbish, junk (Phaedra's Love). thick (too thick to understand) stupid (Blasted). token of their esteem sign of how much they admire you (Phaedra's Love). turn myself in surrender to the police (Phaedra's Love). turn the other cheek accept an insult without fighting back (Blasted). U Back to top

V Back to top venlafaxine an anti-depressant drug (4.48 Psychosis). W X Y Z Back to top wank masturbation, self-sex (Blasted). whodat offensive racist term for coloured people (Blasted). wog offensive racist term for coloured people (Blasted). wogland a country full of wogs- see wog (Blasted). zopiclone an anti-depressant drug (4.48 Psychosis). www.iainfisher.com / send mail / Iain Fisher 2000-2011