Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Talk:Pages 205-226

2009-01-14T15:22:14Z

Tofuman: New page: p.206 at the bottom: The peer flung himself at full length, Attitude 8.11, Torpor, Undergraduate... Please help me. Can't parse the sentence.

p.206 at the bottom: The peer flung himself at full length, Attitude 8.11, Torpor, Undergraduate...

Please help me. Can't parse the sentence.

Pages 60-71

2007-10-20T14:24:52Z

Tofuman: /* Page 69 */

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==Page 63==

63.32-37 '''"Yardbird" Parker is finding out [ . . . ]''' 
Correspondent Igor Zabel offers the following addition to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]]'s note on this passage:
"On one of Parker's CDs (Swedish Schnapps +), I found the passage which was quoted by [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] after Max Harrison, but slightly different, and it is interesting because Parker directly mentions Cherokee: 'Well, that night, I was working over 'Cherokee' and, as I did, I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.' The quotation is taken from 'Hear Me Talkin' To Ya'."

==Page 65==

65.15 '''"Gobbler" Biddle''' 
The Biddles are one of the leading families of Philadelphia, who sometimes vacationed in the Berkshires.

65.16 '''Fu’s Folly''' 
Although, as [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] notes, the character is named for Fu Manchu (who is an important reference for Pointsman later in the novel), it should be recalled that there was also a "Fu" who was a member of the Whole Sick Crew in ''V.''

65.33 '''Jack Kennedy''' 
Contrary to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]], Kennedy’s first book was titled '''''Why''' England Slept'' (not "When").

==Page 68==

68.01 '''Half an Ark’s better than none.''' 
For Crutchfield, there is only '''one''' of everything, as opposed to two of every animal on Noah’s (whole) Ark. (And how much use is half an Ark in a flood, anyway?)

==Page 69==

69.14 '''a bandana of the regulation magenta and green''' 
The coal-tar colors of organic chemistry that resonate throughout the novel. 
Coal tar colors? Coal tar is a brown or black liquid of high viscosity,
Wikipedia. 
Pynchon seems to associate positive things with these colors--see ''Against the Day'' particularly--as he does with bandanas.

69.16 '''Rancho Peligroso''' 
Evokes the Siege Perilous of the Arthurian Grail legend as well as ''Rancho Notorious'', a 1952 Western directed by Fritz Lang and starring Marlene Dietrich. See note at [[V321.06-07]]

==Page 71==
[[image:tyrosine.jpg|thumb|100px|Tyrosine Molecule|right]]71.11 '''kryptosam''' 
Correspondent Matthias Bauer notes that "sam" derives from the German "samen," for "seed." "Krypto," of course, derives from the same word as "cryptography," the study of codes. [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] claims that the "tyrosine" from which kryptosam is supposed to derive is "undoubtedly fictional," but it is in fact an amino acid, which can convert to melanin, just as Jamf's note indicates (although it is unclear whether semen will in fact act as the catalytic agent).

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Pages 60-71

2007-10-20T14:24:25Z

Tofuman: /* Page 69 */

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==Page 63==

63.32-37 '''"Yardbird" Parker is finding out [ . . . ]''' 
Correspondent Igor Zabel offers the following addition to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]]'s note on this passage:
"On one of Parker's CDs (Swedish Schnapps +), I found the passage which was quoted by [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] after Max Harrison, but slightly different, and it is interesting because Parker directly mentions Cherokee: 'Well, that night, I was working over 'Cherokee' and, as I did, I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes, I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.' The quotation is taken from 'Hear Me Talkin' To Ya'."

==Page 65==

65.15 '''"Gobbler" Biddle''' 
The Biddles are one of the leading families of Philadelphia, who sometimes vacationed in the Berkshires.

65.16 '''Fu’s Folly''' 
Although, as [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] notes, the character is named for Fu Manchu (who is an important reference for Pointsman later in the novel), it should be recalled that there was also a "Fu" who was a member of the Whole Sick Crew in ''V.''

65.33 '''Jack Kennedy''' 
Contrary to [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]], Kennedy’s first book was titled '''''Why''' England Slept'' (not "When").

==Page 68==

68.01 '''Half an Ark’s better than none.''' 
For Crutchfield, there is only '''one''' of everything, as opposed to two of every animal on Noah’s (whole) Ark. (And how much use is half an Ark in a flood, anyway?)

==Page 69==

69.12 '''... a faro dealer with a laudanum habit who was crossing the great Rio forever, into the blank furnace of the wild Mexico.''' 
Reminds me of a character in ''Against the Day''.

69.14 '''a bandana of the regulation magenta and green''' 
The coal-tar colors of organic chemistry that resonate throughout the novel. 
Coal tar colors? Coal tar is a brown or black liquid of high viscosity,
Wikipedia. 
Pynchon seems to associate positive things with these colors--see ''Against the Day'' particularly--as he does with bandanas.

69.16 '''Rancho Peligroso''' 
Evokes the Siege Perilous of the Arthurian Grail legend as well as ''Rancho Notorious'', a 1952 Western directed by Fritz Lang and starring Marlene Dietrich. See note at [[V321.06-07]]

==Page 71==
[[image:tyrosine.jpg|thumb|100px|Tyrosine Molecule|right]]71.11 '''kryptosam''' 
Correspondent Matthias Bauer notes that "sam" derives from the German "samen," for "seed." "Krypto," of course, derives from the same word as "cryptography," the study of codes. [[Weisenburger's Companion to Gravity's Rainbow|Weisenburger]] claims that the "tyrosine" from which kryptosam is supposed to derive is "undoubtedly fictional," but it is in fact an amino acid, which can convert to melanin, just as Jamf's note indicates (although it is unclear whether semen will in fact act as the catalytic agent).

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Pages 3-7

2007-07-06T18:55:53Z

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==Page 3==

'''The Evacuation''' 
First instance in GR of a lifetime stylistic trait of Pynchon's: unpredictable use of Capitalization. Capitalization is usually applied to nouns, but not uniformly. Often a matter of emphasis. See ''Mason & Dixon'' for the widest use, there imitating the writing of the time in which the book is set. 
The use throughout all his work might indicate how well-read and influenced by works written before capitalization was standardized Pynchon is. 
The full rules of capitalization for English are complicated. The rules have also changed over time, generally to capitalize fewer terms; to the modern reader, an 18th century document seems to use initial capitals excessively. Wikipedia

'''theatre''' 
Besides the normal meanings, including "theater of war", 'theatre' is the name that fireworks' organizers call a sky display.

'''iron queen''' 
???

'''crystal palace''' 
See Alpha entry, especially this re cultural meaning: 
The Crystal Palace made a strong impression on visitors coming from all over Europe, including a number of writers. It soon became a symbol of modernity and civilization, hailed by some and decried by others.

In ''What Is to Be Done?'', Russian author and philosopher Nikolai Chernyshevsky pledges to transform the society into a Crystal Palace thanks to a socialist revolution. 
Fyodor Dostoevsky implicitly replied to Chernyshevsky in ''Notes from Underground''. The narrator thinks that human nature will prefer destruction and chaos to the harmony symbolized by the Crystal Palace.

When the first major international exhibition of arts and industries was held in London in 1851, the London Crystal Palace epitomized the achievements of the entire world at a time when progress was racing forward at a speed never before known to mankind. The Great Exhibition marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs, which would be held in major cities all across the globe. Following the success of the London fair, it was inevitable that other nations would soon try their hand at organizing their own exhibitions. In fact, the next international fair was held only two years later, in 1853, in New York City. This fair would have its own Crystal Palace to symbolize not only the achievements of the world, but also the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Walt Whitman, the great American poet, wrote in "The Song of the Exposition": 
http://www.ric.edu/rpotter/cryspal.html

That the Crystal Palace Exhibition "marked the beginning of a tradition of world's fairs" can remind that ''Against the Day'' starts at the Columbian Exhibition of 1893 in Chicago. More international optimism.

'''second sheep''' 
3.14
Compare the narrator’s discussion of William Slothrop’s heretical tract "On Preterition," which argued for the holiness of the preterite, and Weisenburger’s note at [[Pages 549-557#555|555.29-31]].

A wide symbology relates to sheep in ancient art, traditions and culture. Judaism uses many sheep references including the Passover lamb. Christianity uses sheep-related images, such as: Christ as the good shepherd, or as the sacrificed Lamb of God (Agnus Dei); the bishop's Pastoral; the lion lying down with the lamb (a reference to all of creation being at peace, without suffering, predation or otherwise). Greek Easter celebrations traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. Sheep also have considerable importance in Arab culture; Eid ul-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which a sheep is sacrificed. 
Herding sheep plays an important historico-symbolic part in the Jewish and Christian faiths, since Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and King David all worked as shepherds. wikipedia
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep] 

Sheep are often associated with obedience due to the widespread perception that they lack intelligence and their undoubted herd mentality, hence the pejorative connotation of the adjective 'ovine'. In George Orwell's satirical novel ''Animal Farm'', sheep are used to represent the ignorant and uneducated masses of revolutionary Russia. The sheep are unable to be taught the subtleties of revolutionary ideology and can only be taught repetitive slogans such as "Four legs good, two legs bad" which they bleat in unison at rallies. The rock group Pink Floyd wrote a song using sheep as a symbol for ordinary people, that is, everyone who isn't a pig or dog. People who accept overbearing governments have been pejoratively referred to as "sheeple". wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep] 

==Page 5==
5.03 '''His name is Capt. Geoffrey ("Pirate") Prentice.''' 
Pirate’s name derives from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta ''The Pirates of Penzance'', in which the hero’s nurse has made a fateful error in carrying out her employer’s instructions: Instead of having the boy apprenticed to a (ship’s) '''pilot''', he was apprenticed to a pirate, hence a "'''pirate''' ‘prentice." The name, though, is not simply a fortuitous pun: In her error, the nurse has lost a message, like the hare of Herero myth, and thus guaranteed her young charge’s preterition. (There are also connections here to the theme of "communications entropy," which is central to ''The Crying of Lot 49'' and the short story "Entropy.")

5.03 '''all got scumbled together, eventually, by the knives of the seasons, to an impasto, feet thick, of unbelievable black topsoil''' 

Didn't notice 'scumbled' first time round, I was going too fast. Second
read I looked it up. Scumbled? Isn't that some sort of painting
[technique? Pynchon make a mistake there? Mean to say scrambled?
Hmmmmmmmm. Then I thought of the 'knives' bit, wondered if artists might
use a [http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/a/Painting_Knife.htm palette knife] to do this scumbling business. A Google search for
"scumble knife palette " found me this:

http://www.messums.com/sub_newsview.ink?nid=11191

"Hard impasto ridges left by the edge of the knife provided the texture
I needed to bring the waves crashing in."

[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/impasto Impasto] eh? I thought that just meant paste. So the knives in "knives of
the seasons" makes perfect sense. And Dictionary.com throws up another
interesting nugget:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=scumbled

"To blur the outlines of: a writer who scumbled the line that divides
history and fiction."

Apt example!

 

==Page 6==

[[image:dna-molecule.jpg|thumb|100px|right]]6.09 '''a spiral ladder''' 
Suggests the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule that preserves the "living genetic chains" evoked at [[Pages 7-16#10|10.14]]. 
Cf. p. 209, ''Mason & Dixon'': " oblique angles with all meridians and that is a spiral coiling round the poles but never reaching them."...

==Page 7==
7.09 '''Pick bananas''' 
Pirate's decision after a paragraph on the inevitablity of the rocket's flight can remind one of a famous Buddhist sutra on picking a strawberry:
The Sweetest Strawberry 
Buddha told a parable in a sutra: 
A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted! 
-Paul Reps, ''Zen Flesh, Zen Bones'' 
from ''Everyday Mind'', edited by Jean Smith
http://www.tricycle.com/issues/2_174/dailydharma/3192-1.html

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Pages 47-53

2007-06-10T21:49:44Z

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==Page 47==

'''run three times around the building without thinking of a fox and you can cure anything'''

Hofstadter says in his book that a cure for hiccup is to run three times around the building without thinking about the word "wolf". His source?

==Page 48==

48.25 "''' . . . one of Lazslo Jamf’s subjects . . .''' " 
The name "Jamf" apparently derives from an acronym used by Charlie Parker: "'''J'''ive-'''A'''ss '''M'''other-'''F'''ucker"!

==Page 51==

[[image:lymer.jpg|thumb|150px|Cobb & Beach at Lyme Regis|right]]51.31-32 '''the Ick Regis jetty''' 
The name is Pynchon’s but evokes "The Cobb," the famous jetty at the city of Lyme Regis on the southern coast of England.

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