Post by Admin on Oct 4, 2023 5:48:47 GMT
As per the GoreyStore: "Edward explained that Q.R.V. means nothing but cures everything."
The magic and enigmatic potion that is QRV appears through several of Gorey's works. It might be worthwhile for someone to someday collect all the instances in a list. Feel free to use this thread to do that.
Anyway, there's a few theories in the comments of Goreyana's blog post on the Gorey book "QRV" on what the potion is and what the name means. I had my own idea today of where the inspiration for Q.R.V. might come from: the initialism Q.E.D., which I've seen written at the end of a piece of writing by Marcel Duchamp. The ArtForum magazine website explains the meaning of QED:
The magic and enigmatic potion that is QRV appears through several of Gorey's works. It might be worthwhile for someone to someday collect all the instances in a list. Feel free to use this thread to do that.
Anyway, there's a few theories in the comments of Goreyana's blog post on the Gorey book "QRV" on what the potion is and what the name means. I had my own idea today of where the inspiration for Q.R.V. might come from: the initialism Q.E.D., which I've seen written at the end of a piece of writing by Marcel Duchamp. The ArtForum magazine website explains the meaning of QED:
Ending his observations with the abbreviation for quod erat demonstrandum, a term applied in mathematical and logical assertions meaning which was to be shown or demonstrated
I could imagine Edward having stumbled upon this abbreviation - I wouldn't even be surprised if it was in Duchamp's writings - and wondered what the heck it meant. He may have eventually looked it up or not, but he liked the mysterious way it sounded in its use and with the rare letter "Q" in it. (Following the shared first letter Q, the letters RV are even positioned right next to or almost right next to E+D on the traditional typewriter/keyboard layout.)
Just a theory I'm throwing out there.
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(As an aside, there's a fun use of QED in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy mentioned on the Wikipedia entry for QRV.)