VV (1): Notes and Queries Section III

[The Great Quail]

First of all, let me tip my hat to Thomas for an amazing start to the 
V. reading! Well done, particularly the commentaries! I for one am 
looking forward to this read, as I haven't read V. for quite a while, 
and I must confess it is my least favorite Pynchon novel. I am hoping 
to enjoy it more this time!

>Why Pynchon brings the Sephardim in here
>escapes me. Why does he associate them with "geographical incest"?

There is a fairly wealthy group of Sephardic Jews who abide in 
Brooklyn and parts of Long Island. They are very insular, forming 
pretty much of a closed community -- match-making, commerce, 
networking, security, even advertising are largely kept "in-house."

I am unfamiliar with the ethnic make-up of the Five Cities, but 
Pynchon's comments here certainly reflect the Sephardic community of 
Western Long Island....

>  makes me (- most of you, i guess) think of zoyd's annual jump & the ass
>  backwards sound of the v2.

There's also a defenestration reference in "Mason & Dixon," though it 
escapes me as to the exact location in the text. Obviously Pynchon is 
fascinated with this concept.... This is, of course, because the 
Nazis created entire defenestration camps for the explicit purpose of 
heaving prisoners out of windows; while certainly not as notorious 
(and thankfully less lethal) than the Vernichtungslager, these 
Rausduausdemfensterschnellgeflingenslager were particularly notorious 
in Austria, where they were generally built on the sites of old Beer 
Halls....

--Quail
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Great Quail, Keeper of the Libyrinth:
http://www.TheModernWord.com

A book is more than a verbal structure or series of verbal structures;
it is the dialogue it establishes with its reader and the intonation it
imposes upon his voice and the changing and durable images it leaves
in his memory. A book is not an isolated being: it is a relationship,
an axis of innumerable relationships.
      --J.L. Borges