GRGR (20) Part 3, Episode 12: Notes, Part 1 of 2

[Michael Perez]

Mark wrote:
"I can't recall, for the moment, where P's character 'Fergus
Mixolydian,
the Irish Armenian Jew' appears... "V" perhaps? Anyone remember the
context? Do you see any meaning in the name? Any relationship to the
Greek convention of the descending, rather than ascending, scale?"

Fergus is indeed from _V._.  He was the slacker who "became an
extension of the TV set" [_V._, p. 56] by means of a "sleep-switch,
receiving its signal from two electrodes placed on the inner skin of
his forearm.  When Fergus dropped below a certain level of awareness,
the skin resistance increased over a preset value to operate the
switch." [56]  He was famous among the Whole Sick Crew for his
unfinished masterworks like "a western in blank verse" and "a wall he'd
had removed from a stall in the Penn Station men's room and entered in
an art exhibition as what the old Dadaists called a 'ready-made.'" [56]
 He also generated hydrogen with a sink apparatus, solely for the
purpose of filling a balloon with a "Z" written on it so that when it
was tied to his foot, the observer would know that he was sleeping.  
Apparently, his lethargy was contagious.  Later in the book, he is said
to have been awarded a Ford Foundation grant - to which Roony Winsome
comments that Fergus "takes money from a Foundation named after a man
who spent millions trying to prove thirteen rabbis rule the world."
[360]

I don't know if there's anything there to link him to Greek music, but
there he was.  I also haven't been able to uncover any reason for the
Greek octave species descending (maybe because it came from the gods on
Olympus).  The origin of the seven tone modes was the combination of
two tetrachords and the theories regarding music came about from
different tunings of a four stringed lyre.

Michael
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