CANTO ONE: "slain/By"

[cfalbert]

> He goes on, speaking of visual deceptions(710):


Its repeated in the verse, after Aunt Maud, I think (I don't have my copy
handy here).........where he speaks of "something" causing his vision to
fail, and speaks of a fold in time, as I recall......

Also the "resurrection" theme applies to Shade's seizures, which can be
interpreted as a form of "petit mort" - as Folwer points out, the first
attack occurs while Shade is playing with the mechanical wheel barrow man -
who will reappear in animate form at the "murder scene"......

love,
cfa
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Malignd" <malignd at yahoo.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 10:50 AM
Subject: Re: CANTO ONE: "slain/By"


> Why "slain"?
>
> and
>
> <<Shade characterises himself as the "shadow" of the
> bird which was killed by (because of/due to) the
> reflection of sky in the window. All the definite
> articles make it sound like something which had
> actually happened, a scene Shade had witnessed from
> inside his bedroom. But it's the "I was ... I was ...
> I lived ... " -- the unashamed yet hopelessly banal
> self-involvement of it all -- which butchers what
> could otherwise have been quite a stunning setpiece.>>
>
> Another possibility here is that the "I"s are not
> banal self-involvement but a specific reference to
> Shade's near-death experience following his attack
> (line 691).  He was "slain," momentarily (his heart
> stopped), brought down by an attack, then his heart
> began again to beat and he "lived on, flew on ..."
> etc.
>
> He goes on, speaking of visual deceptions(710):
>
> The scene was not our sense.  In life, the mind
> Of any man is quick to recognize
> Natural shams, and then before his eyes
> The reed becomes a bird, the knobby twig
> An inchworm, and the cobra head, a big
> Wickedly folded moth. ...
>
>
>
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