VLVL2(3): Strange Soup Messages

[Dave Monroe]

"Hector sat slumped in zomoskepsis, or the
contemplation of his soup.  'I could charge you my
consultancy fee, but I already checked your shoes, so
I'll give you this for free.'  Was he reading strange
soup messages?"  (VL, Ch. 3, p. 31)


"zomoskepsis"

31.12: "zomoskepsis" :  Gr. 'zomo': soup.  Gr.
'scepsis': inquiry, hesitation, doubt.  Obviously,
from the context, soup contemplation. (Naturally, soup
could also be used for scrying, as with M&D).

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9810&msg=31958&sort=date

p. 31 "zomoskepsis"    As far as we can tell, this is
a made-up word. But it's well-made, and means just
what it says: The study, or contemplation, of soup or
meat broth. Pynchon seems to enjoy making up words.
Now and then you run across another "skepsis" word.
Two of our advisors spotted "omphaloskepsis"
(navel-gazing) in the beginning chapters of Umberto
Eco's Foucault's Pendulum.

http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/chapter3.htm

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0308&msg=84634&sort=date


"Hector had the soup of the day, cream of zucchini
..." (VL, Ch. 3, p. 25)

E.g. ...

http://www.vegweb.com/food/soup/2679.shtml

Zucchini, Cucurbita pepo, is a member of the cucumber
and melon family. Inhabitants of Central and South
America have been eating zucchini for several thousand
years, but the zucchini we know today is a variety of
summer squash developed in Italy. The word zucchini
comes from the Italian zucchino, meaning a small
squash. The term squash comes from the Indian
skutasquash meaning "green thing eaten green."
Christopher Columbus originally brought seeds to the
Mediterranean region and Africa. The French snubbed
zucchini for a long time until chefs learned to choose
small fruits which are less bland and watery. The
French term for zucchini is courgette, often used
interchangably for yellow squash as well....

http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/aa081400a.htm


"strange soup messages"

Cf. ...

"... the vegetarian tostada, which upon its arrival he
began to take apart piece by piece and reassemble as
something else Zoyd could not identify but which
seemed to hold meaning for Hector."

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0308&msg=84627&sort=date

As well as, e.g., ...

"Perhaps history this century, thought Eigenvalue, is
rippled with gathers in its fabric such that if we are
situated, as Stencil seemed to be, at the bottom of a
fold, it's impossible to determine warp, woof, or
pattern anywhere else."  (V., Ch. 7, p. 155)

"He had decided long ago that no Situation had any
objective reality: it only existed in the minds of
those who happened to be in on it at any specific
moment. Since these several minds tended to form a sum
total or complex more mongrel than homogeneous, The
Situation must necessarily appear to a single observer
much like a diagram in four dimensions to an eye
conditioned to seeing the world in only three."  (V.,
Ch. 7, p. 189) 

"The ordered swirl of houses and streets, from this
high angle, sprang at her now with the same
unexpected, astonishing clarity as the circuit card
had. Though she knew even less about radios than about
Southern Californians, there were to both outward
patterns a hieroglyphic sense of concealed meaning, of
an intent to communicate."  (Lot 49, Ch. 1, p. 24)

"Behind the hieroglyphic streets there
would either be a transcendent meaning, or only the
earth."  (Lot 49, Ch. 6, p. 181)

"... Kabbalists who study the Rocket as Torah, letter
by letter--rivets, burner cup and brass rose, its text
is theirs to permute and combine into new revelations,
always unfolding ..." (GR, Pt. IV, p. 727)

"Sausages hang against the Sky, forming Lines of Text,
cryptick Intestinal Commentary."  (M&D, Ch. 29, p.
289)

"This 'New World' was ever a secret Body of 
Knowledge,-- meant to be studied with the same
dedication as the Hebrew Kabbala would demand.  Forms
of the Land, the flow of water, the occurrence of what
us'd to be call'd Miracles, all are Text,-- to be
attended to, manipulated, read, remember'd." (M&D, Ch.
50, p. 487)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0201&msg=64469&sort=date

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0205&msg=66858&sort=date

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