antw. Re: VLVL2 (1): Man and Dog

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

David Morris schrieb:


> > 
> >  takeshi, you fools, takeshi (the character who takes us from gr to
> > vineland)!
> > 
> > kfl
> >                                                   ps. see VL 65ff, GR 690ff.


> Do you think this is the "same" Takeshi.  It's a very common Japanese name...


  yes, i think it's kamikaze takeshi. makes perfectly sense, and then there 
  would, on pynchon's side, have been other japanese names (like kenzaburo or 
  yasushi) to avoid this identification. if you - and be it just for the moment 
  - take takeshi to be the dog with the two days, the whole composition becomes 
  far more complex. at least this is the case for me --

kai
                                        "old kenosho, the loony radarman who's  
                                         always brewing up a batch of that sake 
                                         back in the transmitter room, in a 
                                         still he's hooked up to a magnetron    
                                         tube in some fiendish-Nipway that      
                                         defies Western science, every time the 
                                         fellas show up this drunken old        
                                         reprobate starts cackling: 'no dying 
                                         today! no dying today! so solly!' 
                                         pointing at all the blank ppi scopes, 
                                         green radii sweeping silent round and 
                                         round trailing clear webs of green 
                                         shampoo, nothing but surface return for 
                                         more miles than you can fly, and of the 
                                         fatal mandala both hearts would leap 
                                         to, green carrier-blob screened 
                                         eightfold in a circle of 
                                         destroyer-strokes, nothing ... no, each 
                                         morning's the same -- only the odd 
                                         whitecap and old hysterical kenosho, 
                                         who by now is on the floor gagging on 
                                         saliva and tongue, having his Seizure, 
                                         an eagerly awaited part of each daily 
                                         visit, each fit trying to top the one 
                                         before, or at least bring in a new 
                                         twist -- a back-flip in the air, a gnaw 
                                         or two after takeshi's 
                                         blue-and-yellow patent wingtips, an 
                                         improvised haiku: 

                                         The lover leaps in the v o l c a n o!
                                         It's ten feet deep,
                                         And inactive --

                                         as the two pilots mug, giggle, and jump 
                                         around trying to avoid the grizzled old
                                         radarman's trashings -- WHAT? you      
                                         didn't like the haiku. it wasn't 
                                         ETHEREAL enough? not Japanese at all?  
                                         in fact it sounded like something RIGHT 
                                         OUTA HOLLYWOOD? well, captain - yes    
                                         you, marine captain esberg from        
                                         pasadena - YOU, have just had, the 
                                         Mystery Insight!"
                                                          
                                                            GR 691 


                                                         
                                        "as for takeshi, the head ninjette had 
                                         managed to corner him while he was on  
                                         the puncutron machine, all hooked up   
                                         with no escape, and while an inkjet    
                                         printer moved along the meridians
                                         of his naked skin, laying down trigger-
                                         point labels in different colors, 
                                         adding reference numbers and chinese
                                         ideograms, and a senior ninjette 
                                         puncutech stood by with an ivory       
                                         fescue, noting and commenting to a     
                                         small bevy of teen novices, all in     
                                         white g i  with trainee armbands, 
                                         sister rochelle, as so often in the    
                                         past, now socked takeshi with another  
                                         of her allegories, this time about     
                                         Hell" ...
  
                                                         VL 382