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[existenz]

The bartender's smile widened. His ugliness was the stuff
of legend. In an age of affordable beauty, there was something
heraldic about his lack of it. The antique arm whined as he
reached for another mug. It was a russian military prosthesis,
a seven-function force-feedback manipulator, cased in grubby
pink plastic. "You are too much the artiste, Herr Case." ъatz
grunted; the sound served him as laughter. He scratched his
overhang of white-shirted belly with the pink claw. "You are
the artiste of the slightly funny deal."
"Sure," Case said, and sipped his beer. "Somebody's gotta
be funny around here. Sure the *beep* isn't you."
The whore's giggle went up an octave.


While I was reading Neuromancer, I faced some difficult expressions. They don't look so much logical to me :/ Can anybody help me understanding them ?

[bud]

Hi Existenz,

The stuff of legend - The type of thing that becomes well-known and talked about amongst people.

You are too much the artiste - Herr Case is being told that he is a showman. That is, he makes all the routine actions of a bartender entertaining to watch. I'm not sure about the meaning of "too much" here. It could be a kind of exclamation, expressing amazement that Case is able to make the routine so interesting to watch. On the other hand, it could be intended as its literal meaning - too much. In that case, he is saying that Case does it to excess.

Hope that helps.

[existenz]

very logical! Thanks, you are always my saviour

I wonder where it says that he's been doing these routine actions :/

[bud]

He only did one routine action: reaching for a mug. The reason I wrote that is because of the meaning of 'artiste' and because the remark was made while Case was reaching for the mug. According to Cambridge Dictionaries, 'artiste' means "a skilled entertainer especially a dancer, singer or actor." The person making the remark was using the word metaphorically, and he wouldn't have made it if this was the first time he felt Case was being entertaining while performing a routine task... Well, probably not, anyway. The full context would tell us, and if it was the first time, then the "too much" definitely implies his amazement at the showmanship.

I hope that makes it clearer.

Cambridge Dictionaries: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/