MDMD(4): Taurean
David Casseres
casseres at apple.com
Wed Jul 23 12:18:42 CDT 1997
>138. "-- our Passion of Titanick Scope, our Fate, ever to
>be prick'd at by small men in spangl'd Costumes."
>
>Pynchon is a Taurus, too, and perhaps he's giving us his horo here....
>I wonder who the "small men in spangl'd Costumes" might be...
'Fraid that's the rest of us, as we appear to the Taurean. Small. And
as for the spangl'd costumes, the phrase makes me think of the spangles
exaggerated a bit to be like the bits of mirror on a costermonger's
outfit. That's because I just read your other post that quotes the bit
about "miniature mirrors...that allow them to View their Features, tho'
one at a Time. All that is not thus in Fragments, is Invisible." Now
maybe Pynchon really meant spangles, but even so, they do have a
mirror-like quality.
Even better, though, spangles are stars and a toreador's "suit of lights"
is a miniature of the Heavens, made to sparkle artificially in the hot
sunlight; a counterfeit microcosm. So the Taurean, with his/her Titanick
Passion, is tormented by the petty falsifications of the Infinite that
the rest of us display heraldically, fragmenting the truth, making the
whole invisible.
Well, maybe. As Andrew sez, I think Pynchon wants astrology taken with
plenty of salt. Anyone want to go after that reference to the good ship
Titanick?
Cheers,
David
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