SLSL "TSR" swamp

[pynchonoid]

jbor:
>the "rain images" (and accompanying heat and aridness
imagery) are 
> excessive
> and not really that appropriate in the context of a
hurricane's 
> aftermath.
> For example, how realistic is it that Fort Roach
would be a desert
> wasteland, particularly after a hurricane storm cell
has just passed 
> through
> the region? But Pynchon needed to turn it into one
to make this 
>"literary"
> overlay work.

Knowing the terrain that Pynchon describes might be
helpful here.  Having grown up in south Louisiana
(Lafayette) and first-hand knowledge of Cameron
Parish, I can assure you it's not all swamp (enough
water to float a small boat --the local variety is 
the pirougue, which the Cajuns call "pee-row").  Where
you're not in swamp, or rice fields, you're on sandy
soil that, under the very hot south Louisiana sun,
resembles that of a desert, the same sun that tends to
dry up puddles -- on high ground, that is, above sea
level -- pretty quick when the rain stops.   The cabin
where Levine and little Buttercup make the earth move
is on dry land at the edge of the swamp, the search
parties retrieve bodies from the swamp, but Fort Roach
is dry -- landscaping on US military bases tends to be
minimal, too, they don't spend a lot of time
cultivating lawns and gardens. Pynchon's got the
weather and the terrain right here, he didn't have to
modify the natural setting in order to make it work
with his literary allusions and imagery. 

=====
<http://www.pynchonoid.blogspot.com/>

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com