MDMD(8) Questions

[Mark Smith]

Dennis Grace writes:
" I think you're
>unfairly constraining Mr. Pynchon's allusion.  A good
allusion has more
>than one meaning readily at hand.  In fact, if TRP's
allusions each have
>only one decipherable meaning, the whold text becomes
little more than a
>Roman a clef. Now, I'm not saying I know for certain that
TRP has read
>_Orlando_, but if he has, wouldn't that knowledge affect
his use of the
>word "glaur"?

Yes, or course, anything is possible.  Chew on this
possibility: the use of "glaur" in "Orlando" is an ironic
comment on the pretentious writer friend's attempt to sound
more clever than he is.  He thinks he is saying "glory" but
he can't pronounce the word properly in French, so ends up
saying "glaur", or mud.  The word is commonly used in
Scotland, amongst old-timers especially. The irony may be
wasted on most speakers of (American) English.  As far as
the "Roman a clef" theory, I don't get your point.  There is
no "allusion", unless you wish to supply one; there is only
a vocabulary feature.  The fact that the word is arcane to
American ears does not render it, ipso facto, an "allusion".
 I don't discount the possibility completely, but Occam's
razor would certainly cut it out.