Rev's Revery

[No Fun]

Sometimes this list sends a shiver down my back.  Don't ask me to explain
why, but this is one of those times.


----- Original Message -----
From: Terrance <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2002 11:02 PM
Subject: Re: Rev's Revery


> To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
> One clover, and a bee.
> And revery.
> The revery alone will do,
> If bees are few.
>
> The Prairie of desperate Immensity.
>
>   M&D 361.1"to the second Day of Creation, when 'G-d made the Firmament,
> and
>   divided the  Waters which were under the Firmament, from the waters
> which were above    the Firmament,'-thus the first Boundary Line. All
> else after that, in all History, is   but  Sub-Division."
>
>   VL 316.11 Van Meter-looking just like Zoyd asks, "Where's THAT
> Prairie?"
>
> In M-D, Ishamel does not fall from the mast-head into himself, Pip (one
> of Ahab's two fools or clowns, both parts of himself projected, as Ahab
> is projection of Ishmael, the other being Stub--Pipe minus the e) falls
> into the heartless immensity of the sea, the middle of the intense
> concentration of self.
>
>   The Prairie is ch. 79 of Moby Dick. Melville often compares the sea to
> the
>   Prairie. Prairies, like the sea, are only navigable by the stars. In
> this case
>   though, the "desperate immensity" is the sublime brow of the sperm
> whale.
>
>
>   "Physiognomy, like every other human science, is but a passing fable.
> If then,
>   Sir William Jones, who read in thirty languages, could not read the
> simplest
>   peasant's face in its profounder and more subtle meanings, how may
> unlettered
>   Ishmael hope to read the awful Chaldee of the Sperm Whale's brow? I
> put that
>   brow before you. Read it if you can."
>
>   It's also interesting to situate this passage in relation to James F.
> Cooper's
>   The Prairie. This story includes a surly character named "Ishmael",
> who plays
>   the kidnapper and rogue in opposition to the familiar (although
> elderly) hero,
>   Natty Bumpo, who dies, at last,  in this novel.
>
>   Dickinson's  pun (prairie/prayer) seems to echo through these
> passages:
>
>    (#564):
>
>    My period had come for Prayer--
>    No other Art--would do--
>    My Tactics missed a rudiment--
>    Creator--Was it you?
>
>    God grows above--so those who pray
>    Horizons--must ascend--
>    And so I stepped upon the North
>    To see this Curious Friend--
>
>    His House was not--no sign had He--
>    By Chimney--nor by Door
>    Could I infer his Residence--
>    Vast Prairies of Air
>
>    Unbroken by a Settler--
>    Were all that I could see--
>    Infinitude--Had'st Thou no Face
>    That I might look on Thee ?
>
>    The Silence condescended--
>    Creation stopped--for Me--
>    But awed beyond my errand--
>    I worshipped--did not "pray"--
>
>    Melville's physiognomical account of the Sperm Whale's "prairie-like
> placidity"
>   (ch. 75) and "pyramidical silence" (ch. 79) resonates with Dickinson's
> poem
>   about "Vast Prairies of Air" revealing God's facelessness and silence.
>
>   And "now a silent Functionary in dark Livery indicates it is time to
> re-board
>   the coach, and resume the journey (M&D.361)
>
>   The Prairie Line seems to run through American Literature.
>
> How I can not help but think of Death stopping for Emily with carriage.
>
> And, of Proofrock's Eternal footman holding his coat and snickering.
>
>
>    Book XVIII ch.1 of Fielding's Tom Jones, 'A Farewell To The Reader'
>   We are now reader, arrived at the last stage of our long journey. As
> we have
>   therefor traveled together through so many pages, let us behave to one
> another a
>   fellow travelers in a stage coach who have passed several days in the
> company of
>   each other, and who notwithstanding any bickering or little
> animosities which
>   may have occurred on the road, generally make up all at last and mount
> for the
>   last time into their vehicle with cheerfulness and good humor; since
> after this
>   one stage it may possibly happen to us, as it commonly happens to
> them, never to
>   meet more.
>
>   This is the Novelist (Fielding) talking to the reader. Twelve chapters
> follow
>   this one, each announcing the end of the journey.