Three Worlds for a Sandwich (was The Wind)

[Jasper Fidget]

Of Blake and American history: in 1787 (I think), Thomas Paine went to
England and was promptly arrested for treason.  William Blake smuggled him
out of the country before his trial.  B&P, the Poet and the Propagandist,
one the inventor of English Romanticism, the other the man who rescued
American Independence, both by the use of their quills (both claims quite
arguable, of course of course).

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Bailey" <johnbonbailey at hotmail.com>
To: <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2001 11:56 PM
Subject: Three Worlds for a Sandwich (was The Wind)


> While I'm not completely sold on the three worlds thing, Terrance, there
are
> a lot of images in M&D that work with that. Sandwiches for one thing are
> something I think are used very interestingly, and the way that a lot of
> triads are given sandwich metaphors, eg. M&D and the good Rev, not to
> mention all the electricity which comes up (energy between two poles etc),
> well, there might be lots more to think about.
>
> I was reading some stuff about William Blake last night, the poet, not the
> Dead Man, and I hadn't read much of him before but the description of him
I
> was looking at suggested a Vision remarkably similar to that which seems
to
> be espoused in M&D. Lots of mention made to the condemnation of lines
> between eg. Heaven and Hell, the Body and the Mind, Man and Nature, yada
> yada, and when the Energy stuff came in, well I thought Bingo, this is
good
> stuff. And roughly contemporary to M&D's setting, give or take a decade,
and
> coming out of London, and sometimes concerning America, and containing a
> very very intruiging condemnation of deism, of the scientific age, of
> politics and industrialism, all very nice. Not saying there's a direct
> relation, just good music to have in the background whilst you're reading,
> so to speak.