Topical Guide 681
Mark Dorset
Places, Real and Fictional: Rarotonga
Music: Songs: Real and Fictional: “Rarotonga”
What a Piece of Work I Am, Chapter 15:
He used that scraping chair in A Case of Mischief. There was someone mopping the floor, and he kept moving chairs around, scraping them along the floor. The scene was almost silent—just the slop of the mop, and the janitor singing to himself, that old song:
Come on, honey, come with me
Sail away, across the sea
To Rarotonga,
Where the nights are longa
And our love will grow much stronga.
Oh, honey, won’t you come alonga,
Across the sea
To Rarotonga—
With me?
I’ll repeat myself, from Topical Guide 46:
Rarotonga; Arcadia; Shangri-La; Fantasy Land
Dreams of Rarotonga seem to have seduced not only “many a male Babbingtonian” but quite specifically Peter’s grandfather, Peter himself, and also Ariane Lodkochnikov (the sultry older sister of Peter’s imaginary childhood friend Rodney “Raskolnikov” Lodkochnikov). The island plays an important role in What a Piece of Work I Am.
See also:
Places, Real and Fictional TG 64; New Hampshire TG 465; Rarotonga; Arcadia; Shangri-La; Fantasy Land TG 46
Music: Ottorino Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances for the Lute” TG 53; Records; Audio Equipment TG 12; Jazz: Coleman Hawkins: “Body and Soul” TG 252; Rock ’n’ Roll TG 457; Music Appreciation TG 458; Jazz TG 513; Lyrics TG 513; For the Reservations Recommended Soundtrack Album TG 514, TG 520, TG 559; Duke Ellington’s “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” TG 605
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