GRGR(19): Notes, pp. 397-409

[Lorentzen / Nicklaus]

Jeremy schrieb:

> p. 398 "Zwölfkinder": is this a real place?

  probably not (- at least i couldn't find it in my brockhaus). but maybe some 
  wealthy p-freak did, in the meantime, create his/her own pynchon-theme-park. & 
  this, of course, would have to contain zwölfkinder. invitations are welcome.  
 
> p. 398 "Storks are asleep among two- and three-legged horses, rusted
> gearworks and splintered roof of the carousel, their heads jittering
> with
> air-currents and yellow Africa, dainty black snakes a hundred feet below
>
> meandering in the sunlight across the rocks and dry pans." A few things
> about this sentence: I liked reading from the real storks to the fake
> horses,
> that made a nice transition in my thoughts; does anyone know what
> symbolism storks would hold here? (Kai?); what the hell is going on
> after
> the word "air-currents"? This is where the sentence stops making sense
> for
> me.

  found in a qbl-book a reference to white storks. like dogs & camels they can, 
  so it says there (- have no personal experience with storks in any form or 
  context), be related to path 13 on the tree of life. it connects the sefirot 
  keter (- 1, pure white radiation, pluto, lotus crown above the head,"ehyeh") 
  and tiferet (- 6, yellow & salmon, sun, heart, "tetragrammaton eloah va 
  daath"). the related tarot card is "the priestess". but all this, so it seems, 
  does not really bring us nearer to an understanding of the sentence. a propos: 
  i always enjoyed the so called "unintelligibility" of the novel's later parts. 
  though there's probably far more clear sense in it than has been found yet (- 
  let's keep trying!), it's in the first place a sublime manifestation of what's 
  beyond the zero. the fullness of being, the presence of the present. & 
  "non-transparency" has always been considered to be a crucial quality of the 
  sublime. pynchon has the magick touch. by reading his books we allow him to 
  intervene in our very own "primary process". & that's probably the reason - 
  greetings to the "dutchman" from the land of the virgin! - why p-heads tend  
  to believe trp is writing especially for and about them. & then one wonders 
  why others who, no doubt, love the man's art, have completely different views 
  on it. & that's great, too.

> p. 398 "Gretel's eyes lock wide open, never a blink, crystal-heavy
> lashes
> batting...": Doesn't quite make sense that her eyelashes are batting
> when
> her eyes are locked wide open... Is this saying that Pökler (or the
> narrator)
> is imagining the batting?

  perhaps this passage inspired kubrick for the title of his last movie. maybe 
  here the text works like a film cut: sudden change, - "winds from the sea" ... 
  


> Anyone care to tell me what ephedrine is/ why it's used here?

 ephedrine is the alcaloid in plants of the species ephedra. in german these  
 plants are called "meerträubchen" (- not in my dictionary: "little  
 seagrape"?!?). ephedrine is widening the breathing ways. as tea & also in the  
 synthetizised form it works as an asthma medicin. & it is a milder form of  
 speed. & that's what it's used for here, i think. perhaps the pervitin is out. 
 not really an amphetamine ephedrine can nevertheless be used as a base for more 
 elaborated substances. a few days ago, so i read, there has been found in some 
 asian harbor a large amount of ephedrine, which was meant be used for   
 amphetamine production. until the mid 80s, when they were scheduled, you could 
 buy 20 ephedrine pills (- each with 50 mg) for 2, 95 DM (- in those days about 
 a buck) in every german pharmacy. its low price made the substance attractive  
 to young drug users with their chronically low budget.  

                                                              best, kai