SLSL Intro "Two Amiable Fuzzy Creatures"

[jbor]

It's perhaps more likely that Allison Uttley adapted the name of her
character from the old English than that Pynchon got his character's name
from Alison Uttley. A mutual though independent genealogy of influence. Cute
pic though.

Meanwhile, I can see no problem whatsoever with moles and porcupines being
described as "amiable, fuzzy creatures". The two adjectives capture the
nature and appearance of both animals quite adroitly. And Pynchon simply
says he "lifted" the name from _Hamlet_, and "named" the characters after
the two creatures. There's no suggestion in what he writes in the 'Intro'
that the names are meant to signify anything beyond their superficial status
as names: a "cute idea", and a seemingly somewhat randomly-chosen one at
that. So it's pretty irrelevant whether or not the characters themselves are
more "mole-like" or "porcupine-like" than one another, or that the reference
in _Hamlet_ doesn't connect: that was never the intention, according to what
Pynchon writes in the 'Intro'. They're just silly names. That's the point.

best



on 22/11/02 10:50 PM, James Kyllo at jkyllo at clara.net wrote:

> Hello
> 
>> "Attentive fans of Shakespeare will notice that the
>> name Porpentine is lifted from Hamlet, I, v.  It is an
>> early form of 'porcupine.'  The name Moldweorp is Old
>> Teutonic for 'mole'--the animal, not the infiltrator.
> 
> One doesn't need to go back to Old Teutonic
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0001942220/
> 
> Moldy Warp the mole is a character in Alison Uttley's "Little Grey Rabbit"
> books.
> 
> Couldn't find a picture of the fuzzy creature on the net, so I've put one
> there:
> 
> http://www.thedetails.co.uk/moldy_warp.jpg
> 
>