Pynchoniana in the Berkshires

[Dave Monroe]

Larsson, Donald F.  "From the Berkshires to the
   Brocken: Transformations of a Source in 'The Secret
   Integration' and Gravity's Rainbow."  Pynchon Notes
   Nos. 22-23 (1988): 87-98.

http://www2.ham.muohio.edu/~krafftjm/pncumbib.html#L

No matter how fictitious a figure he might have been,
all astrological positions suit the profile, family
history, and the biography of Tyrone Slothrop as I
understand his destiny and externalization. I may be
wrong, but professionally I am fully content with
August 31, 1918 at 7:15 a.m. EWT in Mingeborough, MA.,
USA as being the nativity of Tyrone Slothrop.

http://www.ottosell.de/pynchon/horos5.htm

Mingeborough, Massachussetts
26; Slothrop's hometown [introduced in Pynchon's short
story, "The Secret Integration", where Dr. Slothrop
and his son Hogan live] ...

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/m.html

V26.30 back home in Mingeborough, Massachusetts
The Berkshire town was first created by Pynchon in the
short story "The Secret Integration," set in the
mid-1960s. This story also introduced the Slothrop
family, in the person of Hogan Slothrop, who is
apparently the son of Tyrone’s brother. Minges (or
"midges") are small, biting insects.  However, "minge"
is also a British slang term for a woman's genitals.

http://www.english.mnsu.edu/larsson/gr1.html

Somewhere en route they picked up a fat basset hound
named Pierre, who on sunny days slept in the middle of
the state highway that briefly became Chickadee Street
as it passed through Mingeborough. (pp.159-60)

[...]

Minghe

    Marco "Marchino" Pampaluna, of Milan, Italy, was
kind enough to provide the following:

    "Minghe" stands for "minchia" (a very common
expression, like the American "shit" -- and quite
vulgar). "Minghe" is how "minchia" is spelled
(pronounced) by southern Italians. "Minchia" means
"dick", so "minghe morte" means "your dick is dead"
(i.e, "impotent"), and "capo di minghe" means
"dickhead", "dick-headed" &c. "Minghe" by itself would
be like saying "shit" or any sort of profane
exclamation." 

>From Entropy:

    "Minghe morte," said Duke. "I figured we were
playing it a little slow," Krinkles said.

    Also, Mingeborough is where the kids in The Secret
Integration live.

    "'Capo di minghe!' The Gaucho sat back, shaking
his head." (V. , p.164)

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/v/extra/passages.html#minghe

Grover Snodd, in ''The Secret Integration,'' is a
''boy genius with flaws'' - too dumb, his friend Tim
thinks, to cover up how smart he is. He and his pals
lived in Mingeborough, in the Berkshires, and are
carefully preparing a children's revolt on the model
of the slaves' uprising in the movie ''Spartacus,''
which they have just seen....

http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-slowlearner.html

The final story in the collection is perhaps the
sharpest, and certainly one of the most original.
Called "The Secret Integration," (The Saturday Evening
Post 1964) it was written after V. was published, and
shows a knowledge of a dusty, open America that has
much in common with the Beats. As Pynchon states, it
is informed by the "American nonverbal reality;" an
open space haunted by "Greyhound voices and fleabag
motels." The story takes place in the Berkshires -- in
what would eventually become Slothrop's home town in
Gravity's Rainbow -- and details the adventures of a
group of very exceptional children as they spin some
rather outrageous plots against the adults....

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

   In Thomas Pynchon's hands, the most pervasive
triumph of paper has its origins in the Berkshires
where the Slothrop family fortune is based literally
on what Pynchon labels as the doctrine of "[s]hit,
money, and the Word."71 Again, Pynchon leaves it to
the reader to connect the three uses of paper: the
Slothrops manufacture toilet paper; Dalton, MA, in the
Berkshires is where the U.S. government obtains the
paper for its dollar bills; and the Verbum, or Word,
finds its greatest expression in printed bibles. From
scatology to eschatology, the Slothrop family has all
markets covered--so to speak.

http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/okla/mccarron24.htm

The "Long Meddowe"
1636-1716

The forces that drove thousands of English Puritans to
the New World in the 1630's - the search for economic
security and a godly commonwealth - were in William
Pynchon's mind as he sailed up the Connecticut River
in 1635. Pynchon, Treasurer of the Massachusetts Bay
Company and an experienced fur trader and businessman,
was searching for an ideal place to found a trading
post and establish a Puritan "plantation". After
quietly sailing past meadow lands known to the Indians
as "Masacksic", he reached the confluence of the
Agawam and Connecticut Rivers.

To Pynchon, it appeared to be the ideal place for his
economic and religious foray into the wilderness. It
was above the Enfield Falls and thus safe from enemy
warships. It provided water access to the Berkshires
and the greatly desired beaver...

http://www.longmeadow.org/hist_soc/history1.html

http://www.longmeadow.org/ourtown/history.htm

--- severs at fas.harvard.edu wrote:

> Dave's quotes make me want to ask: I'm going out to
> the Berkshires for the firsttime this week, planning
> to see the Melville house in Pittsfield, and
> wondering if anyone familiar with the area and
> Pynchon could say if there are any landmarks a GR
> fan should make a point of seeing....


		
____________________________________________________
Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page 
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs