Creeping Figs

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Not to mention the typical activities of vines . . . .
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: mikebailey at speakeasy.net
> hey, if it's still morning, it isn't really late!
> 
> Zoyd's a powerhouse compared to some amotivated slackers
> 
> also, in the translation, "Feigenblaetter" omits the "creeping"
> 
> my implicit trust in Pynchon means among other things that I've never researched 
> what makes a fig "creeping" - I suppose it's a legitimate variant of fig - but 
> as a reverie-prone reader, I tend to associate the "creepingness" of the fig 
> with time creeping up on Zoyd's gentle daydreamy ways, and coupled with the 
> bluejay's alarum, see it as a reminder of events moving on, memento mori and so 
> forth
> 
> ...but also as a reminder of the vegetable kingdom and how plants grow up around 
> and between and in the structures we build, and also nature's "creeping" growth 
> quietly renewing things when it can (even the hemp plants being burned)
> 
> 
> -an amotivated slacker
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Otto [mailto:ottosell at googlemail.com]
> > Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 04:38 AM
> > To: 'Pynchon-L'
> > Subject: Re: Creeping Figs
> > 
> > The translation kills that "inaccuracy" by adding a new sentence with
> > a new subject after a komma, there it's the "sunlight" that is
> > "oozing" or "leaking" through the fig leaves outside the window:
> > 
> > "Später als sonst dämmerte Zoyd Wheeler an einem Sommermorgen des
> > Jahres 1984 aus dem Schlaf, hinein in ein Sonnenlicht, das durch die
> > Feigenblätter vor dem Fenster sickerte  (...)." (7)
> > 
> > But what always struck me was that "Later than usual" -- as if we ever
> > get a chance to see a "normal" day in Zoyd's life in the course of the
> > novel!
> > 
> > And at what time we expect a hippie to get up normally? What is "late"?
> > 
> > Otto
> > 
> > 2006/9/16, Carvill John <johncarvill at hotmail.com>:
> > > Much as I love Vineland, and definitely *not* wishing to stir up the whole
> > > political debate around it, I've always found the opening sentence quite
> > > odd:
> > >
> > > "Later than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd Wheeler drifted awake in
> > > sunlight through a creeping fig that hung in the window, with a squadron of
> > > blue jays..." etc.
> > >
> > > Ok, leaving everything else aside, does that 'in sunlight through' strike
> > > anyone else as slightly jarring, as if we'd expect something else between
> > > 'sunlight' and 'through'? Some variant on, say, 'in sunlight that', I dunno,
> > > 'shone through', 'filtered through'.......?
> > >
> > > Any thoughts?
> > >
> > > Cheers
> > > JC
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
>