MDDM Ch. 7 Jethro's tent

[John Bailey]

I'd like to know the very same thing. I can't find any connection. In fact, 
everything I've read says that Moses found a *spouse* in Jethro's tent, 
which is kind of different.

Also, that nimrod reference (of Cornelius Vroom being a nimrod, made me 
laugh having still been a teen in the early 90s, somewhat different meaning 
there) I checked out what the origin of the word is...It's Biblical! Old 
Testament as well. Why so many OT references in this chapter? Although I 
suppose there have been quite a few in previous chapters, they are quite 
piling up down at the Cape, aren't they. I think it's significant, but I 
don't really know what to do with it all.

Anyway, Nimrod in this sense means a hunter, from the Biblical Nimrod who 
was a legendary hunter and king, the first who claimed to be a "mighty one 
in the earth." Babel was the beginning of his kingdom, which he gradually 
enlarged (Gen. 10:8-10). The "land of Nimrod" (Micah 5:6) is a designation 
of Assyria or of Shinar, which is a part of it.

Also, it's interesting that the online dictionary which I use suggests that 
the informal meaning of nimrod, ie. an idiot, probably comes from Bugs Bunny 
calling Elmer Fudd a 'poor little nimrod', he being a hunter and all 
("Shhhh...I'm hunting dictionaries"), and considering that Nimrod was a 
descendant of Ham, it's a very nicely textured Pynchonian kind of joke for a 
Bugs cartoon, which I realise are very interesting in their own right, but 
wow. And there are certainly other explicit cartoon references in M&D (not 
to mention GR & VL), so I'm wondering if P wasn't aware of this cartoon when 
he was writing M&D. Maybe Cornelius is a bit of a Fudd-like figure.




>From: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com>
>To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: MDDM Ch. 7 Jethro's tent
>Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 10:59:44 +1000
>
>But where does the signification that Thomas, John and Terrance mentioned
>about it being a "whorehouse" or a "lewd harem-type scenario" come from? 
>The
>story is certainly in the Bible: Jethro had seven daughters (cf. 60.10), 
>and
>one of them, Zippo'rah, he gave in marriage to Moses. They had a son called
>Gershom, a name which pops up later in the novel in a seemingly unrelated
>context.
>
>The Vroom household certainly resembles a whorehouse, but who is making the
>connection between "Jethro's tent" and whorehouse at this point? The writer
>of _Exodus_? Moses? Some folk saying? Mason &/or Dixon? The narrator?
>Pynchon?
>
>best
>
>
>davidmmonroe at yahoo.com wrote:
>
> > This seems to have been covered (no puns where none
> > intended ...) already, but ...
> >
> > --- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> I tend to think that the Jethro's Tent reference
> >> might be Biblical rather than bawdy, but maybe
> >> there's a folk proverb or idiom? Terrance? Anyway,
> >> thanks to all for your thoughts and info. Most
> >> helpful.
> >
> > See not only, e.g., ...
> >
> > http://www.bartleby.com/108/02/2.html
> >
> > http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/bible/exodus/exodus2.htm
> >
> > http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/Bible/Exodus2.html
> >
> > http://www.bju.edu/bible/exo/2.html
>


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