ATD SPOILER p 262-269

[Anville Azote]

On 12/5/06, Monte Davis <monte.davis at verizon.net> wrote:
> Spoilers whole book
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> And along the way, you've put another finger on what will be a big issue for
> the whole book. Rather than lumping all metaphoriical uses together, I'd
> emphasize Pynchon's *range* from loose to tight metaphor.
[snip]
> I think Pynchon knows when he's doing one vs. the other; I think he uses the
> variety of characters around The White Visitation and around T.W.I.T in AtD
> specifically to draw our attention to the difference and the range between.
> But all too often the Literature Dept. can't tell the difference, because
> they simply don't know enough science and technology to know which parts of
> the Weird Science of 1890 proved fruitful (e.g. imaginary and complex
> numbers as a prosaic, everyday tool in electrical engineering), and which
> were dead ends (broadcast power). Doubtless we'll be heariing lots more
> about Tesla's underappreciated -- or better yet, suppressed -- genius from
> people who don't know the difference between a resistor and a rectifier.
>

Suppression?  I know nothing about suppression!

This is an important point, and you express the issue well.  I think a
statement along these lines should be included, appropriately signed,
in the p-wiki, and we should keep the "loose vs. tight metaphor"
distinction in mind during future discussions.

On a much earthier level, your last sentence reminds me of a game my
friends and I played during college in the absence of wit.  Any time a
word ends in "-er", you reply with "But I just met 'er!"  Canonical
examples include "poker", "liquor", "binder", "supercollider", "tire
sealer and inflator". . . et cetera.  This may explain why my first
reaction upon reading the word "rectifier" was to call out, "But I
just met 'er!"

Resistor?  But why on Earth would I want to?!

-A. A.