The Finger (was Re: pynchon-l-digest V2 #1992)

[Tim Strzechowski]

GR p. 566

"It appears to be a very large white Finger, addressing him.  Its
Fingernail is beautifully manicured: as it rotates for him, it slowly
reveals a Fingerprint that might well be an aerial view of the City
Dactylic, that city of the future where every soul is known, and there
is noplace to hide.  Right now, joints moving with soft, hydraulic
sounds, the Finger is calling Tchitcherine's attention to --

<finger graphic>  "A Rocket-cartel.  A structure cutting across every
agency human and paper that ever touched it.  Even to Russia . . .
Russia bought from Krupp, didn't she, from Siemens, the IG . . ."

With all the Eliot discussion of late, it never occurred to me before
that this passage from GR echoes a bit of The Wasteland:

Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many . . . (ll. 60-4)

Which, of course, sounds amazingly like Dante.

Sorry.  Just free-associating.

Tim

Doug Millison wrote:

> In addition to whatever else it might be, the name "Wharfinger"
> always reminds me of that drawing of a finger in GR -- my copy's
> packed up, we're finally ready to move to our new house -- anybody
> remember where that finger points?
>
> Dr. Hilarious is an interesting character, and it might be worth
> discussing the other attributes that Pynchon gives to him --  his
> nationality, his past, etc. I expect we might find that ties in to
> other Pynchon texts.