TPPM Bartleme: "More Daylit Modes"

[Dave Monroe]

   "Of course Barthelme could work in more daylit
modes as well. The parodies of works that for one
reason and another gave him the pip, though wicked,
are straightforward enough. 'Two Hours to Curtain' is
a closely observed and affectionate piece of
reporting. The radio plays and pieces like 'The
Joker's Greatest Triumph' suggest how much sheer fun
he must have had writing dialogue. You can feel him
sometimes getting lightheaded with it. It could be
generational, the result of coming up during the
'golden age' of radio drama, when speech, music, and
sound effects had to fill the audience's attention and
carry the whole show. I imagine him working on the
Batman piece trying not to laugh too much at his own
work because that might get in the way of maintaining
the idiotically slow pulse he wanted, not at all his
usual narrative tempo, which ran between frenzied and
warp drive."


http://www.vheissu.org/bio/eng_barthelme.htm

http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/uncollected/barthelme.html

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_barthelme.html


"for one reason and another"

Vs. "for one reason or another."  Hm ...


"the pip"

Main Entry: pip 
Pronunciation: 'pip
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English pippe, from Middle Dutch
(akin to Old High German pfiffIz), from (assumed)
Vulgar Latin pipita, alteration of Latin pituita
phlegm, pip; perhaps akin to Greek pitys pine -- more
at PINE
Date: 15th century
1 a : a disorder of a bird marked by formation of a
scale or crust on the tongue b : the scale or crust of
this disorder
2 a : any of various human ailments; especially : a
slight nonspecific disorder b chiefly British : a
feeling of irritation or annoyance

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

Cf. ...

  "Fascinated herself, she has miss'd completely his
effect upon Mitzi, who is sitting there flush'd and
daz'd, with as clear an incipient case of the Green
Pip as Mrs. Edgewise has met with since her own
Girlhood." (M&D, Ch. 36, p. 369)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0202&msg=65197


"The Joker's Gretest Triumph"

Batman #148 (June 1962): "The Alien Force Twins"
Batman #148/2 (June 1962): "The Boy Who Was Robin"
Batman #148/3 (June 1962): "The Joker's Greatest
Triumph" 

http://www.dcuguide.com/DCP/BatmanSilverAge_Index.php

As part of his salvaging and reusing of every day
items, Barthelme liked to play with pop culture
stories, as he did in "The Joker's Greatest Triumph."
In it, Batman considers the Joker's "extraordinary
contradictions": "distant and brimming with friendly
impulses, an inveterate liar and astonishingly strict
with petty cash..." When his companion compliments the
thoughtful analysis, Batman writes, "I was
paraphrasing what Mark Schorer said about Sinclair
Lewis."

http://www.portlandmercury.com/2004-07-08/books2.html


"the 'golden age' of radio drama"

Cf. ...

"Welcome, music lovers, to the cheerfully deranged
world of Spike Jones and his City Slickers. There's
gunshots and cowbells aplenty, not to mention class
hostility, first-rate musicianship, subverted
expectations, hair-trigger timing, and more than
enough material for that interesting subset of folks
looking to be offended ...."

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_spiked.html

http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/uncollected/spiked.html


"idiotically slow"

Main Entry: slow
Pronunciation: 'slO
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English slAw; akin
to Old High German slEo dull
1 a : mentally dull : STUPID <a slow student> b :
naturally inert or sluggish ....

[...]

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary


"warp drive"

http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/warp%20drive

http://www.calormen.com/Star_Trek/FAQs/warp_velocities-faq.htm

http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/education/just_for_fun/startrek.html

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/PAO/html/warp/warpstat.htm

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/PAO/warp.htm


		
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