I knew that

[Henry M]

I am, as I have noted others on the list to be, sensitive about 
people mistaking me. Kinda childish, but there it is.

Sure, Steely. Knew the passage. When Slothrop's uniform is 
taken to the end of that chapter is one of the saddest pieces of 
writing I know. I think of it a lot. Just haven't a little fun there, 
doncha know?

Speaking of sad, does anyone else have any favorite sad passages or 
music. I'm in the mood to wallow (simply because...)

> Date:          Sun, 12 Jan 1997 11:26:58 -0700
> To:            pynchon-l at waste.org
> From:          sitka at teleport.com (Steelhead)
> Subject:       Yo, V-Land Freaks, a challenge

> Henry snips and smirks:
> 
> >> Rich, hard to say. But people out here tell me I bear a remarkable
> >> likeness to Tantivy Mucker-Maffick. I'm like there, but not there.
> >> Know what I mean?
> ><snip>
> 
> >Steely, are you saying there is no there there? <smirk> Actually
> >reminds me more of the infinite improbability drive in the Hitchhiker
> >Guide to the Galaxy series.
> 
> No, not the Hitchhiker's Guide. Gravity's Rainbow. If my cite of Tantivy's
> re-apparition didn't clue you in, how about this gem:
> 
> "For a moment, Slothrop, in his English uniform, is alone with the
> paraphernalia of an order whose presence among the ordinary debris of
> waking he has only lately begun to suspect.
> 
> "There may, for a moment, have been some golden, vaguely rootlike or
> manlike figure [I love that, don't you? the allusion to the mandrake root,
> which will later become so closely aligned with Tyrone] figure beginning to
> form among the brown and bright cream shadows and light here. But Slothrop
> isn't to be let off quite so easy. Shortly, unpleasantly so, it will come
> to him that everything in this room is really being used for something
> different. Meaning things to Them it has never meant to us. Never. Two
> orders of being, looking identical...but, but...
> 
> [cut, the wonderful song, THE WORLD OVER THERE]
> 
> "Why here? Why should the rainbow edges of what is almost on him be
> rippling intense here in this amply coded room? say why should walking in
> here be almost the same as entering the Forbidden itself--here are the same
> long rooms, rooms of old paralysis and evil distillery, of condensations
> and residues you are afraid to smell from forgotten corruptions, rooms full
> of upright gray-feathered statues with wings spread, indistinct faces in
> dust--rooms full of dust that will cloud the shapes of inhabitants around
> the corners or deeper inside, that will settle on their black formal
> lapels, that will soften to sugar the white faces, white front shirts, gems
> and gowns, white hands that move too quickly to be seen...what game to They
> deal? What passes are these, so blurred, so old and perfect?
> 
> "Fuck you," whispers Slothrop. It's the only spell he knows, and a pretty
> good all-purpose one at that."
> 
> Different layers of time, power, and place, Henry. Stratigraphies.
> 
> All you V-land freaks. I challenge you to come up with a better passage
> than the above.
> 
> All you who say Pynch never dropped acid. Read the above again, closely
> this time. But perhaps you have nothing to compare it. In which case, I'd
> recommend. No. Someone may be listening. Someone my have their tape
> recording running. Newt, I'm with you on that one buddy.
> 
> Steely 


My mother was of the sky... -- JL
My mother is the war...
Keep cool, but care. -- TRP
Moderation in moderation. -- Husky Mariner
Not having that, which having... :-|

http://www.nicom.com/~gravity