MDDM Ch. 13 Stars and Planets: Uranus

[Otto]

Rob:
> Yes, and there's also a reference to the "next Planet, yet without a name"
> (133.27) in the passage where, "Obless" and "reluctant to sleep", Mason
and
> Maskelyne "open another bottle of Mountain."
>
> But apparently the barflies in the James's Town pub know about this planet
> in 1761 (133.28), so I wonder if rumours of Uranus's impending "discovery"
> were actually circulating 20 years prior to it being officially recorded
and
> named?
>

I doubt that because Herschel first believed he'd discovered a new comet.
But after the discovery of "Georgium" there were indications that there must
be another planet according to the disturbances in Uranus' orbit around the
Sun.

(snip)

> > I'm still not any further with the term "Apocrypha of Astrology"
(107.15).
>
> My guess is that the reference is to the aforementioned Dragon, Dog and
> Whale, as being only apocryphally astrological "signs". In other words,
> these are not actual "astrological" nominations of the constellations (cf.
> the "signs" of the Zodiac).
>

Yes, of course, but I cannot find a confirmation that they were in use to
make the twelve principles full astrology is based upon in ancient times
when the outer planets were still unknown.

> (snip)
>
> I'm not sure that the paradise Euphy mourns is actually Eden, as Terrance
> suggested - even though I agree that Biblical allusions and ruminations on
> the existence of God by many of the characters are prevalent (eg 138.33
> Maskelyne seeking "among the smaller Probabilities for proofs of God's
> recent Attendance"). For, as well as the citrus groves Euphy specifically
> laments the "Coffee-Fields"! (104.2)
>

We're all making up our own paradises in mind, don't we?

> I suspect that there has been (and will be) a panoply of Creation myths
> worked into the narrative:
>
>     "What if 'twere so?" declares Maskelyne. "Ev'ry People have a story of
>     how they were created. If one were heretickal enough, which I
certainly
>     am not, one might begin to entertain some notion of the Garden in
>     Genesis, as an instance of extra-terrestrial Plantation." (133-4)
>
> Erik von Daniken, anyone? Or _Star Trek III: The Search for Spock_?
>

Indeed. Or the Sirius-mystery (the Dogon), on of those modern legends too.
The interesting thing is that the Christian creation myth isn't "original"
at all but a conglomeration of older stories with some new elements.

> Maskelyne may not be "heretickal enough", but I'd say Pynchon is, judging
by
> his particular use of that very term, "heretic", as a writer's "duty"
what's
> more, in his letter of support for Salman Rushdie and Marianne Wiggins:
>
> http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/uncollected/rushdie.html
>
> Anyway, thanks to both of you for your responses. I note that Pynchon,
being
> an adult, was able to refrain from gratuitously using the new planet's
> eventual name (Uranus) to make the obvious smutty insult, even as he was
> characterising Mason, like Pointsman in _GR_, as a masturbator. (134.6)
>
> best
>
>

Heretical is always good -- think of William Slothrop!

Otto