NPPR: Commentary Line 137 Lemniscate

[Jasper Fidget]

> From: Ghetta Life [mailto:ghetta_outta at hotmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 10:43 AM
> To: mjoseph at rci.rutgers.edu; fakename at verizon.net
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: RE: NPPR: Commentary Line 137 Lemniscate
> 
> 
> 
> Check out this sculpture inspired by the Indian yogi B.K.S. Iyengar:
> 
> http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/arboretum/afterbks1.html
> 
> > >  My understanding of Shade's joy in it had been as a natural pattern
> >from which a spiritual component can be derived, as in this quote from
> Max
> >Heindel:
> > >
> > > "Humanity as a whole is slowly progressing upon the path of evolution,
> >thus very slowly, almost imperceptibly, attaining higher and higher
> states
> >of consciousness. The path of evolution is a spiral when we regard it
> from
> >the physical side only, but a lemniscate when viewed in both its physical
> >and spiritual phases. [...]
> > >
> > > "In the lemniscate, or figure 8, there are two circles which converge
> to
> >a central point, which circles may be taken to symbolize the immortal
> >spirit, the evolving ego. One of the circles signifies its life in the
> >physical world from birth to death. [...]
> 

I know this statue.  Seems to embody the spirit of VN too (even has a
general V shape to it).  

I wonder how much of möbius is in S's lemniscate?  Follow the outer edge of
one arc and you transition to the inner edge of the other.  And to what
extent does this pattern relate to the (iambic) motor motif, given the use
of möbius-lemniscate shaped belts in engines that would have been in use at
the time?  Is the lemniscate a belt drive for the iambic motor?

Jasper Fidget