COLGR49: "ha, ha"

[Kato du Bois]

>From: christinekaratnytsky at juno.com:
>
>
>Pynchon nods "Ha, ha" to Jarry's Dr. Faustroll?  Do tell.  (I don't know
>it at all.)  When was it translated?  Seem to remember "Ha, ha" used a
>bit in Catcher in the Rye.--ck

'tis true, 'tis true ... (Caulden's "ha, ha") ... thank you for reminding. 
It's just one of those connections, messages, coincidences that I happened 
to be reading "Dr. Faustroll" this summer, that put it at the tip of my 
thought. I became interested in Jarry because of his influence on Marcel 
Duchamp, in particular, and the Dadaist and Surrealist aesthetic, in 
general. I would think that Pynchon, oweing something to Absurdists of the 
past, would be familiar with at least some of Jarry's fiction or plays ... 
whether an inocuous "ha, ha" is a nod or not is deflatable, but made me 
smile nonetheless.

The original French was written in 1898, but was not published in Jarry's 
lifetime, perhaps because, among other offenses, there's an assult on a 
Bishop (who drinks rat's piss !) ... the English translation was put out by 
Grove in 1965 ... yes, scant time to make an impact on CLO49, but then ... 
it is a "Streamlined Doomsday Machine" ... ha, ha.

K d B







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