Not too many people are fubsy anymore and if they are, it’s kind of a good thing-- implying education, a prominent artistic career in the seventies, or at least well-read vegetarianism. Windblown hair and natty wool coats have been replaced by t-shirts printed with the phrase “sexy girl” and yellow/black higlights among the truly badly dressed today.
But in Dublin in the 1920’s, fubsy conveyed something else. It conveyed poverty-- Stockings that sagged around the ankles were not a charming detail of the quirky girl in ninth grade English, but instead implied a tight budget, and a pot of porridge for too many siblings in the delapidated house with a dirty front porch floor. It conveyed an inability to maintain an appearance, and to function in the present, implied inadequacy and difficulty...
Fubsiness still exists throughout the Isles today. The frumpy girls in Belle & Sebastian lyrics come to mind, for examples.
What is fubsy? Yellowing Pendleton coats, excessive knitwear, stains, spots, tears, obvious darning, nattiness...
Bloom notices fubsiness throughout the novel. His eye for style is almost feminine in its discretion.
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2 comments:
For the way in which Donna Tartt used "fubsiness" on p. 493 of "The Gpldfinch," this is a much closer definition than "short and squat," which is what the Oxford and the Miriam-Webster dictionaries both offer. The character the author is describing is Hobie, who restores antique furniture in the basement of his antique shop, and the idea of his being rather down-at-heel and uncaring about his appearance describes Hobie quite well.
Helen, a perfect comment. I too am on page 493
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