MDDM Ch. 10 The Bull's Eye

[Mark Wright AIA]

Howdy

I can't remember what these things are called either. But one day all
of you will make the pigrimage to "Mystic Seaport" in Connecticut to
participate in the annual 24 Hour Moby-Dick Marathon on the decks of a
whaling almost as shaggy and toothsome as the Pequod... There you will
see these things in place in the decks. They work surprisingly well.
Reproductions are in the gift shop, at an absurd price, for
paperweights.

Perhaps I can meet some of you there next summer. I've wanted to "lose
the kids" and go back for the reading for several years now. It should
be a good time.

Mark



--- Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net> wrote:
> I found the piece. It's solid glass with a slightly greenish tint
> weighing I
> guess about 3 pounds and is in the shape of a hexagonal pyrimid. The
> diameter is 4 inches and the depth is 4 inches. To describe the shape
> more
> precisely the base extends straight about an inch before the pyrimid
> starts
> and there is an eight of an inch lip serving to hold the thing in
> place in
> the hexagonal hole cut out of the ship's deck. The base is on top,
> toward
> the sunlight, and the apex points down into the interior of the boat.
> Though
> the piece I have is probably meant as an ornament  I'm sure it would
> be
> fully functional if mounted in an appropriate place.
> 
> 
>         P.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Saturday, October 27, 2001 9:28 PM
> Subject: Re: MDDM Ch. 10 The Bull's Eye
> 
> 
> > paul.mackin at verizon.net wrote:
> >
> > > The guy's fascinated by light spectrums, red shifting, doppler
> effects,
> > > wants to ascribe meanings. Does he mean we are all moving away
> from each
> > > other. Not at near the speed of light or anything but
> nevertheless
> > > diverging.
> > >
> > > Did someone say those things mounted in ship bulkheads (of yore)
> to
> provide
> > > light to the interior are called bull's eyes? Heavy glass objects
> tapering
> > > in flat edges to a point, conically prismatic?  Got one here
> somewhere
> but
> > > never knew what they were called.
> >
> > I got the definition from _Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and
> Fable_. I'd
> be
> > interested to hear what it's like: convex or concave? one way or
> two way
> or
> > no way vision? I got the impression it's a thick glass lens of some
> type
> > which lets light in but which you can't see clearly through. It's
> set in
> the
> > deck apparently, not like a porthole window.
> >
> > I agree with Terrance that it's an atmospheric effect which is
> described,
> "a
> > strange dark cloud with a red center" (87), but I haven't been able
> to
> find
> > any data to say that this cloud over Table Mountain is known as a
> "Bull's
> > Eye". When it is first mentioned it is Mason who refers to it by
> this
> name,
> > and the name is put in inverted commas, then Austra takes it up at
> 91. I
> > guess a bull's eye is red, both on a bull and on a dart board
> target,
> which
> > might be enough to explain it. But the way that Austra uses it on
> p. 91,
> and
> > the way that it is used again on p. 99, it refers to an act of
> looking at
> > the Cape society through a different perspective, as if through a
> wider or
> > more objective lens, which is why the sense of "Bull's Eye" as the
> glass
> > disc on a ship's deck, using a maritime metaphor for the different
> societies
> > above and below deck, and how these view one another, to relate to
> the
> > society at the Cape, holds some appeal.
> >
> > Again, I think there's a juxtaposition. Mason and Dixon and the
> Vroom
> girls
> > are looking out at the galaxy through their telescope lenses and
> "Spy-Glass"
> > (99.4), but there is a sense of "Africa", as an allegorical figure,
> or
> else
> > some celestial, "objective" observer, looking *in* at the goings-on
> at the
> > Cape. And it is Austra and the "Droster Republick" (91.29) who are
> aligned
> > to this vantage by the text.
> >
> > I agree that Austra is teasing the Vroom sisters, but it is gentle,
> and
> > there is a real sense of sodality between them, which is why Austra
> holds
> > her tongue at the bottom of p. 90 I think. The girls regard her
> like a
> > sister, and she, comfortably and naturally, feels and acts like
> one: "Jet
> > and Els ... lie together upon one Astronomer's Couch,-- as,
> promptly, do
> > Austra and Greet, upon the other. (92.6)
> >
> > best
> >
> >
> >
> 


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