VV(11):April 15th

[Dave Monroe]

And thanks for clarifiaction on this.  Even the IRS
couldn't/wouldn't let me know.  But beware the Ides of
March, indeed ...

--- Terrance <lycidas2 at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> Serendipity! Today is March 15th, at least it is in
> NYC at
> the moment. April 15th became the new tax return
> date in
> 1955. It was, as you were told, March 15th prior to
> 1955.
> So, turning back to Chapter Six for a moment, Benny
> is said
> to have met the Playboys at the Feast of San' Ercole
> dei
> Rinoceronti, which comes on the Ides of March or
> March 15th,
> the old tax due date. There is not now, nor has
> there ever
> been in NYC nor anyplace else, as far as I have been
> able to
> discover, a Feast of San' Ercole dei Rinoceronti.
> This seems
> to be a Pynchon day. What it alludes to, I have no
> idea.
> There are several Saints, RC and other Orthodox
> Church
> Saints that are candidates by name and date, but the
> Rhinoceroses don't seem to be associated with any of
> these.
> Someone said the Pope's rhinoceros, but how does
> that fit in
> here? The rhinoceros (particularly the horn, white
> horn)  is
> symbolic in the RC Church and in Gnostic traditions
> of all
> sorts of things, including the Cross. Pynchon has
> obviously
> mingled elements of the two major Italian Feasts
> celebrated
> in NYC--San Giuseppe and San Gennaro, but these are
> not
> celebrated on March 15th. In one calendar in this
> novel
> Pynchon turns to the NY Times. Here, March 15th was
> indeed,
> as the narrator informs us, a Thursday. 
> "It was Thursday night, tomorrow--according
> according to the
> nimble calculations of Geronimo...Bung...on a weird
> calendar...sunlight, streetlight, moonlight,
> nightlight...."
> 
> Benny's job with SHOCK and SHROUD also has shifts
> and
> although people refer to them as early and late,
> Benny
> reverses these. Now, in the current chapter we are
> told that
> it is April 15th, but in Chapter Six we passed April
> 15th.
> Now this may all seem like a waste of time. Maybe it
> is.
> I'll let you know.


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