GRGR(14) 'notes' & queries #2

[JL]

n o t e s  &  q u e r i e s  # 2
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I've tried to label info from Weisenburger {sw], and
from hyperarts/redbug {tw}.  Apologies if credits are due.


302.5 : ' in the twilight '
 Very Wagnerian word, that twilight.


302.5ff : ' some corrupted idea of "Civilization," [...] corrupted idea
           of the "The People" [...] imaginary centers [...] not all
           theatre [...] "Gravity's grey eminence [...] living stone." '

 What a sentence this is: classic Pynchon bombast.  I'm picking up some
 heavily Germanic themes of mythology and 'Heimat' about which others
 here are undoubtedly more qualified to comment.
 Again, compare with 3.3 ' it's all theatre '.


302.13 : ' living stone '
 Usually a reference to Christ.  1 Peter 2:4-5 " As you come to him,
 the living stone - rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to
 him - you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual
 house to be holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable
 to God through Jesus Christ. "
 And Psalm 118:22 : " God prepared Jesus, the Living Stone. "
 So, if the ' councils of living stone ' are a priesthood / the Elect,
 where does this place Gravity -- high priest; or deity?
 It is that which both holds the structure together and threatens its
 destruction.  See J E Gordon : _Structures, or Why Things Don't Fall
 Down_,  and the penultimate line of _Gravity's Rainbow_.
 Your Ruminations on Science and Religion are, once again, invited.


302.14 : ' No, as none of these, '
 Biblical phraseology to emphasise the above.


302.17 : ' Don't jump at an infinite number of possible shapes. '
 Eh? Why not?  It's only a dislocated point in space, isn't it?
 Isn't it?


302.17 : ' There's only one.'
 What's this, Whappo?  Monotheism?


302.19 : ' There's a Brennschluss Point for every firing site. '
 Not, then, for every launch site/target combination.  Which answers
 my question about whether all rockets were aimed at the same point.


302.25 : ' the shape of lovers curled asleep, '
 As at 198.33 ' S'd against the S of himself '.  The tone of this
 whole paragraph clearly recalls Roger & Jessica.


302.33 : ' the yarns he spun for Tantivy '
 W-WHAAT?  The plot so far *may be* turned on its head with this
 little confession.  Could The Map have been a fabrication, then?
 Or at least totally misinterpreted?  Or were the yarns only name
 changes; throwing Speed 'n' Perdoo off the scent?
 We've only got our Faith to rely on now, foax.


302.34 : ' primitive fear '
 -- a concept about to be expanded upon...


302.40 : ' snakes like a spine '
 Here's the factory as creature, with Slothrop swallowed.

  A brief pause ensued; the preacher slowly turned over
  the leaves of the Bible, and at last, folding his hand
  down upon the proper page, said: Beloved shipmates, clinch
  the last verse of the first chapter of Jonah -- And God
  had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.  Shipmates,
  this book, containing only four chapters --four yarns --
  is one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of
  the Scriptures.  Yet what depths of the soul does Jonah's
  deep sealine sound!  what a pregnant lesson to us is this
  prophet!  What a noble thing is that canticle in the fish's
  belly!  How billow-like and boisterously grand!  We feel
  the floods surging over us; we sound with him to the kelpy
  bottom of the waters; sea-weed and all the slime of the
  sea is about us!  But what is this lesson that the book
  of Jonah teaches?
  Shipmates, it is a two-stranded lesson; a lesson to us all
  as sinful men, and a lesson to me as a pilot of the living
  God.  As sinful men, it is a lesson to us all, because it
  is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly awakened
  fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally
  the deliverance and joy of Jonah.
                                 ( - _Moby-Dick_ ; p.40-41 )

 NB 'Spine' also recalls that of Gottfried - the 'Rome-Berlin Axis'.


303.3 : ' Lakes of light, portages of darkness. '
 You could drown in the one while the other is a means of escape,
 or perhaps entry.  More on Light & Dark later.


303.5ff : ' Entrances to tunnels slip by like tuned pipes with an
           airflow at their mouths ... '
 Presumably reference to the Pipes of Pan (he pops up shortly)
 rather than to Manuel & His Music of the Mountains.


303.6ff : ' once upon a time [...] playful machinists [...] last
           traces of industrial odor. '
 Amid images of entropy, nostalgia for noble humanity; except that
 we know the workers were starving slaves...


303.19ff : ' the legendary ship *Marie-Celeste* '
 Uh, this was a real ship, surely?
 {sw}: found abandoned 3 weeks after sailing from New York in
 November 1872, the 10 occupants having vanished without trace or
 clue.


303.25 : ' Panic wilderness fear, but these are the urban fantods '
 'Panic' = 'fright without visible cause'; capitalized here to invoke
 the vague Arcadian myth & contrast with the harsh realities of the
 modern world ( 'fantods' = 'collie-wobbles' ).  I wouldn't like to
 say whether our horror at the effect of Industrialization or even the
 Holocaust is any more real or frightening to us than these tales of
 horned half-goats were to our ancestors - they had plenty to be scared
 of.  Just different, I guess.  More on Fear later.


303.28 : ' the lateness and abscence that fill a great railway station '

 Yet again, compare with page 3.


303.29 : ' goat-god '
 Pan himself; aka the Roman Faunus.


303.34 : ' the new Uncertainty '
 Capitalized again at 303.41.  Any comments ?


304.5 : ' route-step '
 ??


304.17ff : ' a fabulous orgy [...] full of poppies, play, singing and
            carrying-on. '
 As I write this on the eve of Remembrance Sunday, my TV screen shows
 thousands of red petals falling on solemn heads.  Which kind of
 spoils the erotic effect.  Any thoughts on this little fantasy?


304.22 : ' As you walk [...] retrace the Rockets becoming '
 Why the switch to second-person?  To personalise for the reader the
 deconstruction of the (capitalized) Rocket?  This hysteron proteron
 recalls 139.35 :  'film run backward: faired skin back to sheet
 steel back to pigs back to white incandescence... '


304.29 : ' chain away '
 Surveyor-speak made familiar in M&D.


304.34 : ' fat and sinuous white-lagged pipes are lurking '
 Ah, the Wyrms, the Wyrms.  Actually, this sentence reminds me of a
 description of The Whale but I can't put my finger on it.


305.6 : ' gnome-size German civilian with a red von Hindenburg mustache
'
 Th-Th-that's Yosemite Sam, Folks.  The orneriest son-of-a-gun North,
 South, East and West of the Harz.  Opera buffs will surely put me
 right.


JL
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 Yet fish there be, that neither hook nor line,
 Nor snare, nor net, nor engine can make thine:
 They must be groped for, and be tickled too,
 Or they will not be catch'd, whate'er you do.
                          ( - _The Pilgrim's Progress)
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