Unanswered questions about Byron the Blurb...

[Ya Sam]

Thanks for that post. Great attempt to channel the discussion back into the 
groove of AtD. I tried to dig some info on famous baloonists of the period 
and didn't get anything. I have a hunch that those places not found on the 
map may have to do wither with Hilbert space or with the Tunguska event.


>From: "David Kipen" <kipend at gmail.com>
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Unanswered questions about Byron the Blurb...
>Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:32:07 -0400
>
>It strikes me that all the inklings offered us in the Amazon blurb fall 
>into
>roughly three categories: 1) certain places at certain times, viz., the
>Chicago World's Fair of 1893, labor troubles in Colorado,
>turn-of-the-century New York, Siberia at the time of the mysterious 
>Tunguska
>Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, and silent-era
>Hollywood; 2) certain places at *uncertain* times, viz., London and
>Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia; and 3) certain
>people at *uncertain* times, viz., Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi, and Groucho
>Marx. We're getting to know an awful lot about the first category, but not
>so much about the latter two. So who'd care to hazard a guess about the
>following:
>
>When between 1893 and about 1920 will the book focus in turn on London and
>Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, and Central Asia?
>
>When will the book focus on Tesla, Lugosi, and Marx? It seems fair to guess
>that Tesla will figure in the World's Fair of 1893 section, maybe in the
>Colorado section, maybe in the Tunguska section, and just possibly in
>a Wardenclyffe section set on TRP's natal Long Island.
>
>But what about Lugosi and Marx? Will we see the former in Europe, perhaps
>during his WWI stint in the Austro-Hungarian army? Will we see Groucho in
>turn-of-the-century New York, a setting which we've so far discussed
>tantalizingly little? Or will we see them both in silent-era Hollywood,
>where Lugosi didn't appear on film until 1920 and didn't get a credit till
>1923, and where Groucho didn't do a short till 1926 or a feature till 1929.
>Not strictly 'years just after World War I,' are they?
>
>I apologize for all this kremlinology. I'm not insensitive to the 'You've
>waited nine years, can't you just sit still a few months longer?' argument.
>But November is a long ways away, and we haven't even begun to ask whose
>unrestrained corporate greed (J.P. Morgan's?), false religiosity, moronic
>fecklessness (McKinley's? the Kaiser's?), and evil intent in high places.
>
>Nor, if they're historic figures at all, which anarchists (Princip?),
>balloonists, which gamblers, corporate tycoons (see above), drug
>enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, mathematicians (Hilbert?), mad
>scientists (Tesla?), shamans, psychics, and stage magicians, spies (Mata
>Hari?), detectives (James McParland?), adventuresses, and hired guns.
>
>Or would you all rather go back to talking about the Stones?
>
>All finest,
>David
>
>
>Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years
>just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in 
>Colorado
>to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and 
>Vienna,
>the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska
>Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood,
>and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.
>
>With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of
>unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and
>evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or
>should be inferred.
>
>The sizable cast of characters includes anarchists, balloonists, gamblers,
>corporate tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and decadents,
>mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, psychics, and stage magicians,
>spies, detectives, adventuresses, and hired guns. There are cameo
>appearances by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi, and Groucho Marx.
>
>As an era of certainty comes crashing down around their ears and an
>unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to 
>pursue
>their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's their lives
>that pursue them.
>
>Meanwhile, the author is up to his usual business. Characters stop what
>they're doing to sing what are for the most part stupid songs. Strange
>sexual practices take place. Obscure languages are spoken, not always
>idiomatically. Contrary-to-the-fact occurrences occur. If it is not the
>world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two.
>According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction.
>
>Let the reader decide, let the reader beware. Good luck.
>
>*--Thomas Pynchon*

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