chosen de Chirico

[Richard Romeo]

I may be wrong, but I think this art work is on the cover of David Seed's 
The Fictional Labyrinths of Thomas Pynchon.

Rich


>From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: chosen de Chirico
>Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2001 23:40:57 +1100
>
>Found that reference:
>
>http://www.pynchonfiles.com/Boeingpage3.htm
>
>      DiChirico's "Enigma of the Hour" is suggested by Pynchon as the 
>jacket
>      illustration.
>
>Here's the painting:
>
>http://wings.buffalo.edu/cas/english/faculty/conte/syllabi/377/Images/Chiric
>o_Hour.jpg
>
>A very early work: not as flat and linear as his mature style, moody,
>Munch-like almost ...  V. & doppelgänger again ...
>
>best
>
>
>~~~
>     "By 1945, the factory system - which, more than
>      any piece of machinery, was the real and major
>      result of the Industrial Revolution - had been
>      extended to include the Manhattan Project, the
>      German long-range rocket program and the death
>      camps, such as Auschwitz.It has taken no major
>      gift of prophecy to see how these three curves
>       of development might plausibly converge, and
>                 before too long. ... "
>                                  (T. Pynchon, 1984)
>                                                     ~~~
>
>----------
> >From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
> >To: David Morris <fqmorris at hotmail.com>
> >Subject: painters preferred (was Re: Sphere, Slab & Mafia
> >Date: Fri, Jan 5, 2001, 3:30 PM
> >
>
> >
> > ----------
> >>From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at hotmail.com>
> >>
> >
> >> The repetition of the painted image makes me think more of Warhol, who 
>was
> >> nothing if not decky-dant.  Repetition for him was mechanical, as in
> >> "inanimate-expressionism."  For the more fluid and truly 
>"expressionist"
> >> painter, repeated themes and images represent an explorative probing of 
>the
> >> resonances of an idea or an obsession and are far from catatonic.  
>Pynchon
> >> has been the literary champion of repetitive themes, wouldn't you say?  
>And
> >> why so?  Both Pollack and Johns are painters whom I'd bet my bottom 
>dollar
> >> Pynchon respects.
> >
> > Perhaps so. But maybe that depiction of Slab's painting style isn't so
> > negative after all? (Certainly not as anti- as the parody of Mafia/Rand, 
>but
> > by the same token not nearly as pro- as the one of Sphere/Coleman et al) 
>I
> > might reserve further comments on this until we get to the relevant 
>section
> > in the novel I think.
> >
> > But I was interested to read that Pynchon originally wanted one of de
> > Chirico's painting for the cover of _V._ (Can't recall where I read it, 
>but
> > I'm pretty sure it was at one of the Pynchon sites, maybe 
>"Pynchonfiles".)
> > There is that reference to the de Chirico and his surrealist "novel"
> > _Hebdomeros_ later on in the text, of course. I tried reading it once 
>but
> > didn't get very far. I wonder which of de Chirico's paintings he wanted? 
>I
> > recall one with a bunch of bananas in the foreground, and another with
> > artichokes, and another with biscuits. But I think that this might have 
>been
> > the one:
> >
> > 
>http://www.tigtail.org/TVM/B/European/a.%20pre%20WW%20I/chirico_great_metaph
> > ysician.1917.jpg
> >
> > The metaphysician as golem is just so apt.
> >
> > Of course, thinking of SHOCK and SHROUD, there's this
> >
> > http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6163/muses.html
> >
> > Or, cf. the "Bad Priest" of Malta and her "good" doppelganger, this:
> >
> > 
>http://www.tigtail.org/TVM/B/European/a.%20pre%20WW%20I/chirico_two_sisters-
> > -jewish_angel.1915.jpg
> >
> > One for monroe:
> >
> > 
>http://www.tigtail.org/TVM/B/European/a.%20pre%20WW%20I/chirico_archealgogis
> > ts.1927.jpg
> >
> > And here's a glimpse of those biscuits:
> >
> > http://www.angelfire.com/de/jwp/
> >
> > But this one is my favourite de Chirico of all, and certainly comes in 
>with
> > a good chance as well (i.e. all that stuff about "the Street" in the 
>novel):
> >
> > http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6163/myst.html
> >
> > best
> >
> > ps btw, anyone know anything about these essays/collection?
> >
> > 'The Faustus of Malta: An Interface of Fact and Fiction in Pynchon's 
>_V._',
> > 'Pynchon and an International Dimension of the Sette Giugno', 'Historic
> > Truth and Poetic Truth: Between Pynchon and Braudel', in _Pynchon, Malta 
>and
> > Wittgenstein_ (by P. Bianchi et al.), Malta, Malta University 
>Publishers,
> > 1995, pp. 39-73.
> >
> > http://www.arts.um.edu.mt/Philosophy/publications.htm
> >
> >
> > ~~~
> >     "By 1945, the factory system - which, more than
> >      any piece of machinery, was the real and major
> >      result of the Industrial Revolution - had been
> >      extended to include the Manhattan Project, the
> >      German long-range rocket program and the death
> >      camps, such as Auschwitz.It has taken no major
> >      gift of prophecy to see how these three curves
> >       of development might plausibly converge, and
> >                 before too long. ... "
> >                                  (T. Pynchon, 1984)
> >                                                     ~~~

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com