GRGR(14) 'notes' & queries #3

[JL]

n o t e s  &  q u e r i e s  # 3
--------------------------------
I've tried to label info from Weisenburger {sw], and
from hyperarts/redbug {tw}.  Apologies if credits are due.


305.10 : ' ROCKET LIMERICKS '
 Well, what do you make of these?
 More later on the prurient subject matter, what of the
 technique employed here -- insertions of these strict
 little Choruses to punctuate the action, and their
 association with (some of) Slothrop's pursuers?
 Anyone find it Pavlovian that from now on we'll think
 of Marvy's gang as soon as the familiar rythmn strikes
 up off the page, like a clock in a crocodile?


305.18 : ' a pulse of silence before the attack'
 Is this really Stormtrooper (i.e Blitzkrieg) style, or
 just a comical audio effect? Can anyone relate this
 description to the Communication Theory that P knows
 and loves?


305.24 : ' So waltz me round again, Russky! '
 More dancing.


305.27 : ' some upright, some lying on their sides. '
 Just like the drunken soldiers in the same sentence. Nice.


305.33 : ' clear and present miasma of evil '
 What's the origin of the phrase 'Clear and Present Danger'?
 I assume from some rules of engagement or possibly a legal
 defence.
  mia'sma  : n. Infectious or noxious emanation;

 Stollen 41 is starting to sound like Highway 61.


306.1 : ' score '
 When did this usage become common?


306.2 : ' cracker '
 See also COL49 p.8 : ' people poorer than him come in,
 Negro, Mexican, cracker, '
 {sw} white, Southern backwoodsman; usually from Georgia.
 This particular chap is playing the role of Boatman, isn't
 he.  Reminds me of that Immanuel Ice character in M&D.


306.5 : ' stiff upper lip '
 Well, mine is feeling a bit flaccid at the moment, and I don't
 know about you but I'd be shit-scared in Tchitch's boots, let
 alone Slothrop's shoes.  I'm quite interested in how P treats
 and describes personal and communal fears.  The latter seem to
 be much more commonly addressed than the former (This example,
 plus 309.20 and Roger's "Jess, don't leave me" notwithstanding).
 More from me later, but what do you think?


306.13ff : ' here's the dark floor rushing up at him [...]
            every dark crystal of Thuringian sand '
 This is the reality of The Fall as fantasized at 297.24.
 Enjoy the trip.  And it is a trip.


306.29ff : ' Slothrop doesn't know that they are singing to
            him, and neither do they. '
 Ooo-er.  Whose conditioning are we dealing with now?  Not
 just a comment on S's brilliant disguise, surely.


306.32 : ' its Lyle Bland who has hold of his ankle '
 For dipping in what river of immortality, I wonder.  Might
 Slothrop's Achilles' Heel (faulty conditioning) turn out to
 be his salvation?


307.12 : ' thousands of luminous worms '
 Retinal images left over from his swinging trip.


307.27ff : ' Which nobody can deny if they know what's
            good for them, '
 So the hearty show of loyalty is a bit of a sham.
 This places the villainous status of the Mothers squarely on
 their Leader.  I can't help thinking that P couldn't bring
 himself to implicate the ordinary grunt.


307.35ff : ' The rolls of fat [...] screened more coarsely.
            [...] purple, yellow, and green '
 Marvy is described in explicitly comic-book terms.  Why does
 Pynchon undermine the ominous atmosphere with this caricature?
 It all turns slapstick from here. SlapStyx?


308.1 : ' He is shaking hands with his well-wishers, '
 A campaign-trail image; can anyone identify a particular
 politician with Marvy?


308.20 : ' grease gun '
 From context, a submachine gun, presumably?


308.29 : ' in the other main tunnel now, '
 Is it important that Slothrop has crossed to the other
 side?  What might these two parallel alternative routes
 represent?


308.35 : ' an elderly man [...] white, water buffalo
          mustaches.
 Can this be kind old uncle Einstein?  Why is he so keen
 to help Tyrone, and is he as benevolent as he seems?
 We've been expecting you, Meester Bond.


309.7 : ' Monel '
 {sw} nickel-alloy steel.
 All you owners of the excellent pre-94 Honda/Accura NSX
 will recognise the highly corrosion-resistant metal from
 which your ignition key is made (among other parts).


309.11 : ' Glimpf '
 Mean anything to you?


309.34 : ' a good one about his mother '
 Not 'The War' again, surely?  Marvy is the child of...
 what?


309.38ff : ' light out [...] lights go out. '
 Funny.


310.5ff : ' soft clang and sharp Himmel '
 Does 'clang' have a German interpretation that lends meaning
 to this?


310.18 : ' On the Mittelwerk Ex-press! '
 Out of Hell in a handcart.  Just in case you thought
 there wasn't enough drug stuff goin' on :

 Looking at the world
 Through the sunset in your eyes
 Trying to make the train
 To clear Moroccan skies
 Bugs and pigs and chickens call
 Animal carpet wall to wall
 American man is five foot tall and you

 Sweeping cobwebs from the edges of my mind
 Had to get away to see what we could find
 Hope the days that lie ahead
 Bring us back to where they've led
 Listen up to what's been said to you

 Would you know we're riding
 on the Marrakesh Express
 Would you know we're riding
 on the Marrakesh Express
 All on board that train

 I've been saving all my money just to take you there
 I smell the garden in your hair

 Take a train to Casablanca going south
 Blowing smoke rings from the corners of my m-m-mouth
 Cold coffins hang in the square
 Charming corporals in the square

 Don't you know we're riding on the Marrakesh Express
 Don't you know we're riding on the Marrakesh Express
 They're taking me to Marrakesh Express
 Don't you know we're riding on the Marrakesh Express
 Don't you know we're riding on the Marrakesh Express
 They're taking me to Marrakesh

 All on board that train (X3)

  [ - Crosby, Stills & Nash;  1969 ]


310.23 : ' Minnie and-Max, '
 ??


310.32 : ' Local midgetry '
 Dwarfs in folktales were apparently regularly associated
 with Jews but I'm reluctant to conclude that they are
 some manifestation of the former inmates.
 Thor's hammer was made by dwarfs under a mountain, however
 (see 313.11 below).


311.19 : ' "Engineers," Glimpf mutters.
 Oh, the contempt of the Pure for the Applied.


311.32 : ' the Icy Noctiluca breaks, '
 Sounds like "Hark, what light through yonder window..."
 (I've just deleted several lines of drivel here about
 this paragraph.  None of it came close to illuminating
 what seems mighty important.  Please shed your light here.)


312.9 : ' touch the whiteness back '
 A painting term where a colour is modified, usually with
 tints of its opposite.


312.22ff : ' say, Professor, could the shock wave [...] '
 Imagined dialogue that could have been written by George
 Lucas, it's so clumsy.


312.37 : ' screaming that prolongs, echoing '
 Across the sky?  See page 3 again; and particularly 4.28ff.


313.6 : ' up into the Harz '
 A swift Ascent now following the unenlightening Descent.


313.11 : ' squadrons of howling Thunderbolts. '
 Traditional Revenge Weapon of the Gods.  Remember that
 Marvy supposedly 'hitched a lift on a P-47' (287.23);
 I never bought the notion that Pynchon was confused with
 his model designation.


313.17 : ' a great wing '
 Valkyrie image.


313.41ff : ' Dust motes, fanned by the doves' wings, never
            stop billowing here. '
 What does this place represent?  Literary forerunners might
 include Miss Havisham's dining room in _Great Expectations_,
 and Gormenghast.


314.2 : ' Frederick The Great hairdos, '
 Frederick II of Prussia (1712-86); author of _AntiMachiavelli_;
 admirer, and to some extent patron, of Voltaire.  More later.
 As for his hairstyle --
 {sw} tight waves in layers from the ears up.


314.11 : ' windows of a bathysphere '
 30s invention of Charles William Beebe which enabled
 the discovery of some strange worlds.  I've lost the
 details along with my hard disk but someone earlier in
 GRGR spoke of the contemporary impact of a National
 Geographic (I think) feature on the bizarre creatures
 of ze deep.  Thomas Mann was mentioned as one who used
 the story as source.


314.15ff : ' Hmm, T.S., what's this?  '
 The Eliot reference must be deliberate.  We get no answer
 to this or any of the questions in this paragraph; it's
 a recurrent technique of Pynchon's to cut away from scenes
 unresolved and unacknowledged.  He does make us work.


314.26 : ' Gearin' up fer thim Rooskies '
 But isn't this area about to fall under Russian control?
 What *is* going on?


JL
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 let me tell you 'bout this torch I carry
 it's not much of a career
 and it won't make my fortune, I fear.  [ - ebtg ]
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