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“Who are you? Where do you fit into poetry and myth? Do you know who I think you are, Ramsay? I think you are Fifth Business. You don't know what that is? Well, in opera in a permanent company of the kind we keep up in Europe you must have a prima donna -- always a soprano, always the heroine, often a fool; and a tenor who always plays the lover to her; and then you must have a contralto, who is a rival to the soprano, or a sorceress or something; and a basso, who is the villain or the rival or whatever threatens the tenor.
"So far, so good. But you cannot make a plot work without another man, and he is usually a baritone, and he is called in the profession Fifth Business, because he is the odd man out, the person who has no opposite of the other sex. And you must have Fifth Business because he is the one who knows the secret of the hero's birth, or comes to the assistance of the heroine when she thinks all is lost, or keeps the hermitess in her cell, or may even be the cause of somebody's death if that is part of the plot. The prima donna and the tenor, the contralto and the basso, get all the best music and do all the spectacular things, but you cannot manage the plot without Fifth Business! It is not spectacular, but it is a good line of work, I can tell you, and those who play it sometimes have a career that outlasts the golden voices. Are you Fifth Business? You had better find out.”
― Fifth Business
"So far, so good. But you cannot make a plot work without another man, and he is usually a baritone, and he is called in the profession Fifth Business, because he is the odd man out, the person who has no opposite of the other sex. And you must have Fifth Business because he is the one who knows the secret of the hero's birth, or comes to the assistance of the heroine when she thinks all is lost, or keeps the hermitess in her cell, or may even be the cause of somebody's death if that is part of the plot. The prima donna and the tenor, the contralto and the basso, get all the best music and do all the spectacular things, but you cannot manage the plot without Fifth Business! It is not spectacular, but it is a good line of work, I can tell you, and those who play it sometimes have a career that outlasts the golden voices. Are you Fifth Business? You had better find out.”
― Fifth Business
Classics and the Western Canon
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— last activity Dec 23, 2024 09:53AM
This is a group to read and discuss those books generally referred to as “the classics” or “the Western canon.” Books which have shaped Western though ...more
This is a group to read and discuss those books generally referred to as “the classics” or “the Western canon.” Books which have shaped Western though ...more
Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon
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— last activity Dec 08, 2024 09:55AM
Our next readathon will be April 26, 2025. We'll start reading at 8am Eastern Time April 26th, and end at 8am April 27th.. ...more
Our next readathon will be April 26, 2025. We'll start reading at 8am Eastern Time April 26th, and end at 8am April 27th.. ...more
Persephone Books
— 1352 members
— last activity Dec 08, 2024 04:19PM
Persephone Books specializes in rediscovering 20th century novels, neglected women writers, twentieth century women writers and out of print books. Th ...more
Persephone Books specializes in rediscovering 20th century novels, neglected women writers, twentieth century women writers and out of print books. Th ...more
Mount TBR 2013 Reading Challenge
— 77 members
— last activity Oct 09, 2014 11:10AM
This group is for those who would like to participate in the Mount TBR Reading Challenge which I am hosting on my blog My Reader's Block. You are welc ...more
This group is for those who would like to participate in the Mount TBR Reading Challenge which I am hosting on my blog My Reader's Block. You are welc ...more
Mount TBR 2018
— 227 members
— last activity Jan 17, 2019 03:43AM
This group is for those who would like to participate in the 2018 edition of the Mount TBR Reading Challenge which I am hosting on my blog My Reader's ...more
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This group is for those who would like to participate in the 2018 edition of the Mount TBR Reading Challenge which I am hosting on my blog My Reader's ...more
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