pynchon-l-digest V2 #4596

[Michael Bailey]

Glenn Scheper wrote:
>
> Taking a "little book" from the right hand of the angel
> correlates with my discovery of male pap self-suckling.
>

the little book, in Revelations was eaten, and sweet on the tongue but
bitter in the belly?  I've often wondered about that book.  Why would
John of Patmos eat the book?  (there's an outrageous theory that
John's visions were brought on by mushroom consumption)

>But better than following up just ONE idea, if you want
>a HOST of ideas, try my freeware executable SURF4ME.EXE,
>drop your tokens into it, and get a folder of web pages.
>http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/surf4me.exe
>Just save it to your desttop, execute it to do a search,
>(It may be busy a long time.) It leaves a result folder
>of HTML pages in cur. dir., which is, e.g., the desktop.

I'll download it today and put it on my (Windows) laptop.  Thank you!

>
> Crossing my post, Michael pointed out:
> > Pointsman gets fellated, I remember that much!
> That act could make him the evil sorcerer, having
> cast Jessica from Odette to Odile, in same person.
>

truly hoping _not_ to cross the Thurn and Taxis post, however

I was struck by the resemblance between reading and feeding, but
didn't want to oscillate beyond a peaceful node with the idea.  In my
mind, it hearkened back to the opening of V., with Suck Hour; the
story begins, and I just know I'm going to love this stuff; "like
mother's milk", the narrative draws me in; the seance in the longer
tale of GR may be a similar place - where I found I was hooked on the
story - the opening scenes establish a context (the War, the Last
Judgment, even the railroad - unrealized potential of _that_
infrastructure, sounding a chord with the unused potentials of
Christianity ("Sundays when no traffic came through") then the
existence and essence of Pirate (I want to think "English everyman")
and the appearance of Slothrop ("American everyman") in the spotlight,
searching in the rubble, confronting his fear) - that builds to 1,5
where Snoxall's (I want to think of Finnegan's Pub) offers some
comfort, and builds up the Pirate character some more.   Looking a bit
forward, Slothrop's "explorations of racial tensions" resonate with
Pirate's prejudices as well.

More character development of Pirate, his lack of confidence, and the
way They have chosen to develop him.  If his Loaf-fantasy of sharing
an agape feast with the unfortunates whom Britain is colonizing has
shown them he has intelligence and a measure of compassion, perhaps
They are trying him out in civilian life, where he disappoints Them by
ignoring the many available single women and instead choosing to
complicate the life of a married woman.

What are the lyrics to "Dancing in the Dark" really about?  Seems to
me, love.  But I may have to make another pass at that.

henry wrote:
> check out my media page: http://www.urdomain.us/scuffling.htm

righteous tunes!  Thanks!


 Otto quoted:
Die St�rke der
> USA ist halluzinativ.

the strength of the USA is in its hallucinations?   Not since they
sent Owsley to Terminal Island**
Just kidding, I know that's not the real meaning.  I have a friend
who's trying to learn Deutsch, it's made me try to remember some of
it.  That does sound like a great radio program, though.  I will give
it a try today.

** re Owsley-- he served his sentence out and has a different line of work
http://www.thebear.org/  I hope he won't mind if I post his URL, he
sells artwork now

----------------------------
jody wrote:
(great Miltonic reminders: the hissing, the Gloaming)

> and considering Jessica Swanlake as a figure for that
> process (will get to the mathematical relationship between
> the seances later), all we have, at this point, is her name,
> and Gloaming's hint: "a vocabulary of curves." So, keeping
> the theme of control in mind, let's take a look at "J e s s i c a."
> It's hard not to notice the two s's right there in the middle. We
> shouldn't exclude them from our consideration of meaning.
>
...
> but for now, I'm more interested in that final elegant S,
> a third one, beyond the first two- the graceful and serene-
> Swanlake.
>
> Could it hint at a secret way out beyond the death promised
> by obsession with control;  an integration beyond those
> providing the illusion of control, a triple integration?
>

oboy, there's some rusty math gateway in my brain (which, didn't I
read somewhere that the Qlippoth aren't really evil, they are just
rusty gateways?)
a triple integration would flesh a point out to a curve, to a circle,
to a sphere?


Otto cited from der Spiegel:
> Dem niederl�ndischen Justizminister Piet Hein Donner

he may have been named after Piet Hein, the author of those great Grooks?


bis Morgen wieder,

Michael