C.17: aka Jack Degree

[cfalbert]

I should have emphasized the importance of "gradient".....


love,
cfa
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "cfalbert" <calbert at hslboxmaster.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 9:21 AM
Subject: Re: C.17: aka Jack Degree


> Do not neglect the link back to Pope's extensive play on the word
> degree.....and the numerous definitions offered by Prof. Wood.....
>
>
>
> love,
> cfa
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper at hatguild.org>
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Monday, August 18, 2003 4:46 PM
> Subject: NPPF: C.17: aka Jack Degree
>
>
> > "Jack Degree or Jacques de Grey": degree (Anglo Saxon "građa"):
> >
> > Jack-in-the-Green: the Green Man, a woodland spirit often rendered in a
> > frame of leaves who is ceremonially put to death during the Pagan
Beltane
> > festival (May 1) to celebrate the coming of Spring.  His execution is
said
> > to release the spirit of summer.  Now also: "A chimney sweep enclosed in
a
> > framework of boughs, carried in Mayday processions" (Webster's).
> >
> > http://website.lineone.net/~dominicow/green_man_folklore.htm
> >
> > An intersection between Pagan and Christian (a border zone, as with the
> > color grey): of the Green Men decorating Gloucester Cathedral: "Perhaps
he
> > reminds us of our interconnectedness with nature and the greening power
of
> > trees and plants. [...] The Green Man probably arrived in the Christian
> > Church as a part of a general sense of Spirit in Nature, an inheritance
> from
> > the Pagan past, an inheritance which was doubtless more subconscious
than
> > deliberate."
> >
> > http://www.gloucestercathedral.uk.com/2001/greenman.asp
> >
> > See also "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight":
> > http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/c/cme/cme-idx?type=header&idno=Gawain
(Middle
> > English edited by J.R.R. Tolkein)
> >
> > http://alliteration.net/Pearl.htm (modern translation by Paul Deane)
> >
> > Implies the (abundant) Celtic and Anglo Jack legends and tales ("Jack
the
> > Giant Killer", "Jack and the Beanstalk"), concerned mainly with a
> trickster
> > protagonist who beats someone stronger through cunning (but who may not
> > always live happily ever after).  There's even one branch ("Jack and
> Molly",
> > _Jack Tales_) localized to Appalachia.
> >
> >
>
http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/youth/fantasy/TheBlueFairyBook/
> > chap39.html
> >
> > http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0328jack.html
> >
> > http://www.mwg.org/production/websites/jacktales/who/
> >
> > http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0395669510/qid=1061236132
> >
> > Jack is also a name associated with various villains, including
> > Jack-the-Lad, "the nickname of Jack Sheppard, an 18th-century thief
[...]
> > (a) a young troublemaker; (b) a working-class hero; (c) a wanted
> criminal."
> > (OED); and Jack-the-Ripper.  Also a general villain of nature: Jack
Frost.
> > (We'll see Gradus assume the role of several historical and fictional
> > villains before finally becoming Jack Grey.)
> >
> > Jack: "A thing which saves human labour; a device, a tool." (OED)
> >
> > Jack-of-the-Clock: A figure of a man which strikes the bell on the
outside
> > of a clock. (OED)
> >
> > Jack-at-a-pinch. (a) One called upon to take the place of another in an
> > emergency. (b) An itinerant parson who conducts an occasional service
for
> a
> > fee. (Webster's Revised)
> >
> > Everyman-Jack: colloq. each and every person. (OED)
> >
> > Jack-of-all-trades: one who can turn his hand to any kind of work.
> > (Webster's Revised)
> >
> > Jack-in-a-box: A child's toy, consisting of a box, out of which, when
the
> > lid is raised, a figure springs. (Webster's)
> >
> > Jack-in-office: an insolent fellow in authority. --Wolcott. (Webster's)
> >
> > Jack-o'-Lantern comes from an old Irish legend about a man who won a
pact
> > with the devil which kept him from going to hell, but who was too wicked
> to
> > get into heaven, so was doomed to wander the marshes for eternity,
> swinging
> > a ghostly lantern.
> >
> > http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_o_lantern
> >
> >
> > -=Jasper Fidget=-
> >
> >
>
>