MDMD2: Magnetical Stupor

[Jasper Fidget]

I was just reading in Wired Magazine about Garry K. vs. Deep Blue; they
mention Wilhelm Steinitz "...who ended his days in New York wandering
barefoot through vacant lots to charge his feet with the electricity by
which he telephoned God without the benefit of a phone."  Apparently, he
offered God a pawn.  "Chess' lesser pros," the article says, "tend to tread
the knife's edge of genteel poverty, and several great names of the past
have died destitute."  Kind of like Literature's lesser pros, huh.  Of
course, Steinitz was World Champion once, too.

Jasper Fidget

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Lundy" <jlundy at gyk.com.au>
To: "'Paul Nightingale'" <paulngale at supanet.com>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2001 8:08 PM
Subject: RE: MDMD2: Magnetical Stupor


>
>
> Paul,
>
> I think it is Fischer.  You raise an interesting point.  We all understand
> athletes being past it, but can the same thing be true of those  involved
> in intellectual pursuits?  For instance, Joseph Heller was never the same
> after Catch 22 and, at the risk of all the demons in Hades nipping at my
> fleeing heels, I don't believe Pynchon was anything like the same writer
> post GR.  I read a theory about this once which goes along the lines of
the
> individual suffering the intellectual equivalent of a broken chassis after
> putting their heart and soul into a body of work.  I'm not sure.  I never
> had a chassis to break.
>
> There's something to be said for the ordinary man.
>
> John
>
>
> On Tuesday, 25 September 2001 04:13, Paul Nightingale
> [SMTP:paulngale at supanet.com] wrote:
> > There's nothing wrong with lowering the tone, I aspire to it every time
I
> > start to write. I'd forgotten the story about Fisher (or is it Fischer,
> I've
> > forgotten that as well) and Spassky. Those were the days! I read the
> other
> > week that Bobby F (playing safe there) was back playing chess on the
> > internet. Under an assumed name of course (perhaps he's forgotten how to
> > spell it as well). But he managed to give himself away by beating
> everyone,
> > even though he's "past it" in age terms.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "John Lundy" <jlundy at gyk.com.au>
> > To: "'Paul Nightingale'" <paulngale at supanet.com>; <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> > Sent: Monday, September 24, 2001 5:56 AM
> > Subject: RE: MDMD2: Magnetical Stupor
> >
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > Paul,
> > >
> > > I'm sorry to lower the intellectual tone of this, but does anyone else
> > > recall that during a match in that great symbolic cold war contest,
the
> > > World Chess Championship, Bobby Fisher and Spassky quarrelled after
> > Spassky
> > > refused to continue until Fisher changed his tie?  Spassky said that
> the
> > > psychedelic patterns on the tie were clearly designed by the CIA's
> > > hypnotists and were planned to have a mesmeric effect that would see
> him
> > > putty in his opponent's hands.  I thought it was hilarious at the time
> and
> > > it all came flooding back.  By the way, I believed Fisher's
> protestations
> > > of innocence on the grounds that his appalling dress sense was pretty
> much
> > > matched by most Western males in the 70s.
> > >
> > > (I'm enjoying your exposition of all of this.  I'm learning lots.
>  Harry
> > > Houdini to me was and remains a grim-faced Tony Curtis upside down and
> > > manacled in a cylinder of arctic water with a how-the-fuck-did-I
> > > ever-agree-to-try-this look on his face.  So all this is a revelation.
> > >
> > > On Monday, 24 September 2001 14:40, Paul Nightingale
> > > [SMTP:paulngale at supanet.com] wrote:
> > > > Roy Porter, in Mind-Forg'd Manacles, tells the following story. In
> the
> > > 1790s
> > > > mesmerism would become an unlikely secret weapon for Revolutionary
> > France
> > > in
> > > > the war with Britain. James Tilley Matthews had been briefly
> imprisoned
> > > by
> > > > the French Jacobins; and he it was who exposed the plot upon his
> return
> > > to
> > > > England in 1796. Teams of "magnetic spies" aimed to mesmerise
> government
> > > > ministers, he claimed: "Thus, for instance, when the Secretary of
War
> is
> > > at
> > > > church, in the theatre, or sitting in his office and thinking on
> > > indifferent
> > > > subjects; the expert magnetist would suddenly throw into his mind
the
> > > > subject of exchange of prisoners." Matthews was committed to Bethlem
> in
> > > > 1797; this, he argued, was part of a Government/Mesmerist plot to
> > silence
> > > > him (Penguin ed, 1990: 237-9).
> > > >
> > > > Hence, mesmerism as popular science is associated with threats to
the
> > > > established order, or even just order, as well as paranoia. It is
> part
> > of
> > > > what Foucault called Unreason in the Age of Reason. From Dixon's
> point
> > of
> > > > view Mason has taken leave of his senses, seduced (too strong a
> word?)
> > by
> > > > the Learned Dog (juxtaposed to "an Actress one admires"; something
> > > > to do with his dead wife). This is all part of Dixon's introduction
> to
> > > the
> > > > city, a dream-world he finds baffling throughout Ch3: his "clear
> > > > Stupefaction" becomes, is transposed into, Mason's "Magnetical
> Stupor".
> > > And
> > > > then, if the Dog does 'stand in' for Cherrycoke in this chapter, he
> > > > transforms the observer whose story-telling is merely reactive into
> the
> > > kind
> > > > of narrator who is more manipulative, ie a writer.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
>