VV(18): Porcepic

[Otto]

>
> "porcepic" = porcupine
>
> http://www.nature.ca/notebooks/francais/porcepic.htm
>
> http://www.csaffluents.qc.ca/animalier/Porcepic.htm
>
> ... a la Porpentine, which Pynchon hisself (see the
> "Introduction" to Slow Learner, p. 19) cites a source
> for ...
>
> "I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
> Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
> Make thy two eyes, like stars,
>    start from their spheres,
> Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
> And each particular hair to stand an end
> Like quills upon the fretful porpentine."
>
> William Shakespeare, Hamlet I.v.19-25.  The speaker
> here is the Ghost of Hamlet's Father, on whom, see ...
>

Note the French name of *erithizon dorsatum*: Porc-épic d'Amérique


Interestingly Douglas Fowler uses nearly the same quote to open his chapter
"The Difficulty of Supernational Terror" in his GR Reader's Guide (p. 13) to
explain why some things (if they're to be called things at all) have to
remain unsaid. He "could unfold" such a tale but in fact he cannot:

"...But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood...
--Hamlet, I, v, 13-16"

... and all this in German is this:

"Ich bin deines Vaters Geist:
Verdammt auf eine Zeitlang, nachts zu wandern,
Und tags gebannt in ew'gen Feuers Glut,
Bis die Verbrechen meiner Zeitlichkeit
Hinweggeläutert sind. Wär's mir nicht untersagt,
Das Innre meines Kerkers zu enthüllen,
So höb' ich eine Kunde an, von der
Das kleinste Wort die Seele dir zermalmte,
Dein junges Blut erstarrte, deine Augen
Wie Stern' aus ihren Kreisen schießen machte,
Dir die verworrnen krausen Locken trennte
Und sträubte jedes einzle Haar empor,
Wie Nadeln an dem zorn'gen Stacheltier:
Doch diese ew'ge Offenbahrung faßt
Kein Ohr von Fleisch und Blut."

Otto