Frenesi

[Henry Musikar]

Anagram programs are quite common, even "freeware." I checked out all 
of the names below, didn't find any common noun whole word anagrams 
EXCEPT for Frenesi=Refines.

On  6 Aug 96 at 21:21, David Jordan wrote:

> Date:          Tue, 6 Aug 1996 21:21:01 -0700 (PDT)
> From:          David Jordan <littlcat at netcom.com>
> Subject:       Re: Frenesi
> To:            Paul DiFilippo <ac038 at osfn.rhilinet.gov>
> Cc:            pynchon-l at waste.org, littlcat at netcom.com

> 
> 
> I always assumed that many readers of _Vineland_ knew that
> "frenesi," with an acute accent on the terminal 'i,' is simply
> Spanish for "frenzy" or "madness," and that this datum had already
> entered the extended discussion that is pynchon-l and public Pynchon
> appreciation in general. Maybe not.  My monolingual _Pequeno
> Larousse Ilustrado_ defines it more broadly as "delirio," "locura,"
> exaltacion,", or "entusiasmo."  "Locura" means madness; the meanings
> in English of the other three words are pretty obvious. 
> 
> Another Spanish-language-oriented reference book I have gives it as
> the etymon of English "frenzy" through Middle English "frenesie."
> 
> Salman Rushdie pointed out in his review of _Vineland_ that
> "Frenesi" is an anagram of "free sin" and had something (he
> mentioned in passing) to do with TRP's concern with sin and free
> will.  Maybe, maybe not.  Rushdie may just have been in the throes
> of a clever but unsupportable thought.  I mean, why not "sin free,"
> and what would that mean in a critical analysis of _Vineland_? 
> 
> At the time, I was learning C and thought it would be clever to turn
> my PC into an exhaustive anagram generator, but I didn't have the
> time and still have many other unarguably more urgent things to do. 
> Also, I had a small hard drive and the anagrams of too many personal
> names of even twelve or fifteen letters would have taken way too
> much space.  But just think, one could thereby look for hidden or
> multiple meanings in "Zoyd Wheeler," "Hector Zuniga," or many
> others.  For instance, "Zipi Pisk" looks like it has possibilities. 
> 
> Actually, I've heard there's a Web site with an anagram generator. 
> Maybe someone reading pynchon-l, with more time that I, could
> compile a complete list of personal and place names, and any other
> expression that looks interesting, run then through, and report back
> if anything interesting turns up. 
> 
> Factoring in DiFilippo's suggestion below, it's possible that some
> combination of the above and the below stands behind of TRP's choice
> of that name for that character.  He is a polymath, after all.  I've
> heard a story about the way he acts in bookstores, but I probably
> shouldn't tell it in such a public forum.
> 
> Speaking for myself, I think, primarily, that he liked the sound of
> the word (and it does have an attractive, feminine sound that would
> grace many a female human) and knew its meaning in Spanish, with one
> or two other strands of meaning, possibly the big band song title
> that DiFilippo noticed, intersecting. 
> 
> David Jordan
> littlcat at netcom.com
> 
> 
> On Tue, 6 Aug 1996, Paul DiFilippo wrote:
> 
> > 
> > I just had occasion to listen to the big band tune "Frenesi", and
> > I wish there was some way of sending a soundbite of it to everyone
> > on the list.  I venture to say that a few notes played to anyone
> > over a certain age will immediately bring the whole tune to mind.
> > For me, it conjures up the Forties, some mythical Latin America,
> > cartoons, lounge lizards, old movies, etc.  Now, here's my
> > observation:  What made TRP pick such an innocent, lilting,
> > starry-eyed melody for the name of a majorly fucked-up gal?  It
> > seems utterly incongruous.  The only strategy I can discern (and
> > this might be a direct homage) is the way Terry Gilliam chose a
> > similarly "sweet" song, "Brazil", to apply to a black dystopia.
> > 
> 
> 

Keep cool, but care. -- TRP