Maas o menos: Infinity, Oy/Yo, Club on Pita

[Eric Alan Weinstein]

Dear Friends---

Diana York Blaine wrote:
> 
> May I point out the suitably Pynchonian (not to mention Foucauldian)
> difficulty y'all are having in finding out the "true" origin of
> Maas?  Even the carbon-unit bearing that name in Real Landia cannot (it's
> ok Steve, we feel your pain.)  Reminds me alot of Oedipa's search for the
> source of the Courier's Tragedy in CoL49 itself. Strike another blow
> for post-structuralism--all we can know is language and we cannot even
> know that.  (


     My goodness, how much searching  has come from ten minutes of typing
between giving tutorials! I am more than flattered. 
Perhaps all this should not take us by surprise
when we consider two more named referances for Oedipa and Pierce. 

    Firstly, as Jeff Krafft reminds me, "Marty Popps pointed out
about 20 years ago ("Perpetual Motions"), citing that line near the end of
Lot 49 in which Oedipa thinks of Pierce and a "fraction of him that
couldn't come out even," but "would carry forever beyond any decimal
place she might name," that Pierce Inverarity is pi."

PI!

   And secondly, Oedipa's nickname, Oed, is of course OED---the
Oxford English Dictionary; containing, in theory, all words
extant in the language (although Puhewwwarrrrmate isn't there yet.) 

    So Oed gives us a kind of totality of language, even as
as PI's infinity, should in theory, be a kind of numerical 
endlessness. 

   And at this point, my friends, I suggest their is a paper
to be written about Levinas, Infinity and The Crying Of Lot 49.
Hey! Or perhaps not. Perhaps I need to watch a lot more cable
television. So many channels, and all so cheap! That word 
"channel" is a funny one, though...

    By the way, has anyone else noticed that the traditional
Brooklynese salutation  "Yo!" is an exact reversal of the 
East End attention-grabbing "Oy!" Although both communities
share elderly Jewish men, such as my Dad, who are fond of 
the yiddishism "oy vey" (variant "oy vey's meir"). This is,
I am told, deeply satisfying when repeated in varying 
inflections several times a week.

yours in foolish action and word,

Eric
E.A.Weinstein at qmw.ac.uk

P.S. Not looking for the truth exactly, maybe a good 
vegitarian club on pita--bueatiful