[Vocabulary] The topical unease of laughing at England’s weakness for fripperies

[Deniz Olunmalı]

"The play [Robert Wilson's The Three Ladies of London] trades quite literally in the topical unease of laughing at England’s weakness for fripperies in exchange for arming Muslims with metal taken from churches." (Jerry Brotton, This Orient Isle- Elizabethan England and the Islamic World)

What does the emphasized phrase mean here?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

It's all pretty confusing. How can a play literally trade in anything? And how do you exchange the unease of laughing with arming Muslims?

Could topical be typical or tropical misspelled? (Just wondering. It still wouldn't make sense.)

I don't understand any of it.

 

[Deniz Olunmalı]

Can "trade" be interpreted as meaning "take advantage of" here?

 

[GoesStation]

Can "trade" be interpreted as meaning "take advantage of" here?

Yes. And "topical" means "of particular interest because of its applicability to current events". This doesn't help me much in understanding the sentence.

 

[Deniz Olunmalı]

Yes. And "topical" means "of particular interest because of its applicability to current events". This doesn't help me much in understanding the sentence.

I thought that topical means "current, actual" here, GoesStation.

 

[GoesStation]

I thought that topical means "current, actual" here, GoesStation.

Yes, but it's only used when the fact that something is current makes it particularly interesting.

 

[TheParser]

(Jerry Brotton, This Orient Isle- Elizabethan England and the Islamic World)

NOT A TEACHER


1. Of course, I do not understand the underlined words. In fact, I even had to look up the word "fripperies."

2. I did learn something, however, on the Web. This Orient Isle explains that the English during Queen Elizabeth the First's reign sold scrap metal from the Catholic churches (that had been destroyed by the English authorities at that time in history) to the country that we now call Turkey.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Can "trade" be interpreted as meaning "take advantage of" here?

I have no idea.

Deniz, you were right to wonder about the passage. You might just be bogged down in some incoherent writing. It happens! (In fact, I create it sometimes . . . .)