MD3PAD 559-561

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 25/07/2006:

>         Deep inside the missing days, Mason finds himself in a library
> among the shelves that only the Elect may read, which includes missing
> Gospels

NB the imbedded allusion here to Eco's _The Name of the Rose_.

http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon- 
l&month=0206&msg=67137&keywords=hypatia

best

> and Shakespeare's Tragedy of Hypatia.  He finally gets hungry
> and returns to the street where he is confronted by whirring objects he
> hopes are bats and howls he hopes are from dogs.  The moon remains full
> and present for the entire eleven days.
>
>         In a courtyard he discovers an invisible barrier he knows he  
> must
> not cross. But he crosses it anyway.
>
>         He decides to find some wine to drink. He is drawn to the edge
> of the eleven days and emerges when kissed by Rebekah, who at that time
> was his fiance.  He knew it was not a dream because he was bitten while
> inside the eleven days. Dixon wants to see the scar but Mason said it
> disappeared about ten minutes after he returned from the vortex.
>
> vw#118: Noctambulation - walking by a person who is asleep.
>
>         Mason takes from his experience that life is a finite period at
> the end of which he will be reunited from his wife.  Here chapter 56
> ends.
>
> Toby
>