NPPF ps
Jasper Fidget
fakename at verizon.net
Sat Sep 13 12:49:24 CDT 2003
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
> Behalf Of Paul Mackin
> Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2003 12:25 PM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: NPPF ps
>
> On Sat, 2003-09-13 at 01:37, jbor wrote:
> > What's the joke with Oleg and the tulip?
>
>
> Only thing that occurs to me is that the tulip is sometimes emblematic
> of a precious, effete person of the sort the manly prince hopes Oleg has
> not turned into during their year of separation..
>
> P
I agree with Paul on why the tulip is funny; also just because it's set in a
simple sentence like a punchline: "As he was returning, Oleg arrived. He
carried a tulip." And tulip is a funny word.
Maybe Oleg is arriving from a tulip festival in the Netherlands (it's May)?
I can't find anything that stands out for tulips AND 1928, although May,
1928 is when tulips first arrived in Holland, Michigan -- they have a "Tulip
Time" festival every year.
The Netherlands got their tulips in 1593 from Persia (like "the Persian
lilacs in riotous bloom" that also connect to Oleg) and apparently went
through a tulip craze that peaked around the time Charles II lived there in
exile. This was during the 80 Years War between the Dutch and Spain, and
also the time of Rembrandt and Vermeer.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/r/v/rvs2/biol020/tulips.htm
http://www.florissa.com/history/history.html
Jasper
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