lift girders

[Ya Sam]

Thanks. It's just the way I don't feel the language sometimes multiplied by 
the fact that it's the language used by Pynchon. Now when I perceive this 
sentence with 'lift' as a verb, it becomes so bloody poetic: "above him lift 
(rise, loom) girders old as an iron queen'. Damn! I would start re-reading 
GR right now if it were not for AtD.


>From: the Robot Vegetable <veg at dvandva.org>
>To: Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com>
>CC: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: lift girders
>Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2006 15:00:25 -0800 (PST)
>
>
>I don't think it means a "lift girder" - I tink it
>meands that means they loom overhead, but not as
>oppressive as "loom".  Akin to the relation between
>intense volition (loom) and velleity (lift).
>
>
>On Sat, 11 Nov 2006, Ya Sam wrote:
>
> > It's in the very beginning, the famous passage:
> >
> > "It is too late. The Evacuation still proceeds, but it's all theatre. 
>There
> > are no lights inside the cars. No light anywhere. Above him lift girders 
>old
> > as an iron queen, and glass somewhere far above that would let the light 
>of
> > day through. But it's night. He's afraid of the way the glass will
> > fall—soon—it will be a spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace. But 
>coming
> > down in total blackout, without one glint of light, only great invisible
> > crashing.
> > Inside the carriage, which is built on several levels, he sits in 
>velveteen
> > darkness, with nothing to smoke, feeling metal nearer and farther rub 
>and
> > connect, steam escaping in puffs, a vibration in the carriage's frame, a
> > poising, an uneasiness, all the others pressed in around, feeble ones,
> > second sheep, all out of luck and time: ..."
> > "They have begun to move. They pass in line, out of the main station, 
>out of
> > downtown, and begin pushing into older and more desolate parts of the
> > city.."
> >
> > I also thought about the elevator (British lift), but he appears to be 
>in a
> > train car (British carriage) so the "lift girders" would logically be, 
>as
> > you correctly said, the beams, perhaps like those of the overhead 
>structures
> > at all big stations in the UK. But the question still remains, why "lift
> > girders?" Where did P. take this term? The guide to GR (the older one at
> > least) doesn't explain this term.
> >
> >
> > >From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> > >To: "Ya Sam" <takoitov at hotmail.com>
> > >CC: pynchon-l at waste.org
> > >Subject: Re: lift girders
> > >Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2006 16:15:50 -0600
> > >
> > >Can you provide a few lines of context?
> > >
> > >We know what a girder is (a primary beam in a steel frame structure),
> > >and we know what a lift is (an elevator).  So a "lift girder" could
> > >mean a part of the structural frame in an elevator shaft.
> > >
> > >David Morris
> > >
> > >On 11/10/06, Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com> wrote:
> > >>Was going to ask this long ago. Just now remembered. I couldn't find 
>the
> > >>term "lift girder" in any dictionary, even google didn't yield 
>anything
> > >>coherent. So what do "lift girders" (in the beginning of GR) exactly 
>mean,
> > >>and in which way are they different from girders proper? (Sorry if 
>that
> > >>was
> > >>asked before, but I couldn't find anything in the archives as well).
> > >>
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