The Small Rain, Low-Lands : A Few Questions

[Derek C. Maus]

On Thu, 13 Jan 2000, Sergey Kuznetsov wrote:

Zdravstvuyte, Sergei! Long time, no see...

> just now in Moscow the first Pynchon book is afoot. I edit the Russian
> translations, and have a few questions.

Excellent. It's about time somebody brought him into Russia.

> Low-Lands.
> 
> DF think about to discuss the Midget Problem with Nerissa. What the hell is
> Midget Problem? Dictionaries are silent, and AltaVista gives to me only XXX
> pages...

I'm no help on this one...been a while since I've read that story and I
don't remember the context.

> There are the "bank run" in the dump ("On the top of the pinnacle of bank
> run stood  a human figure..."). What does it mean? Only "bank run" I found
> is financial term...

Well, I know that a "run" can also be a colloquial name for a small creek
(e.g. Bull Run, the creek near which two memorable American Civil War
battles took place). I don't remember the ful context of this quote (and
don't have my Slow Learner copy next to me, but this *might* be the
connotation (it comes to mind especialy when coupled with "bank" as in
"river bank"). That is pure conjecture, though, without the text in front
of me. 

> What is "Bravo Company"?  ("The specialists from Bravo Company...") p.31

Designation for a military unit. In American military parlance the letters
receive names to distinguish similar sounding ones form each other. Bravo
Company would be the name for Company B (which otherwise sounds a lot like
Company D, Company E, Company G, etc...) of a particular division,
battalion, etc. Someone more militarily inclined than I could tell you if
there's any special significance to this particular reference, but it
strikesme as a rather ordinary designation.

> I'm sorry for dumb questions... but not-so-dumb is easier... t.s.elliot
> quote is t.s.elliot quote in Russia also, but Midget Broblem and Bravo
> Company are the real problem and the bad company.

"Aprel' samyi zhestokii mesiats," eh?

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Derek C. Maus               | "My fondest hope is to die at the hands
dmaus at email.unc.edu         |   of a murderer. In America, the truly 
UNC-CH, Dept. of English    |       famous are always murdered."
http://www.unc.edu/~dmaus/  |                   --Quentin Crisp
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