ATD the norse/nunatak/serpent/odialesque thing

[John BAILEY]

Sorry about that. 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
Behalf Of robinlandseadel at comcast.net
Sent: Monday, 2 April 2007 1:26 PM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: RE: ATD the norse/nunatak/serpent/odialesque thing

Just to note, "If the Dante arch is indeed a portal. . . ." is Tore's
quote, in other words, you are responing to Tore.
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "John BAILEY" <JBAILEY at theage.com.au>
> Robin wrote:
> 
> "If the Dante arch is indeed a portal, what exactly is it a portal 
> into, though? Another dimension, or another time? Of course, the line 
> between dimensions and time is a fluid one in AtD, but it seems to me 
> that the emphasis in the description of the Dante arch on p. 401 is on
time:
> "They approached a memorial arch, gray and time-corroded, seeming to 
> date from some ancient catastrophe, far older than the city." This 
> seems puzzling, ne?
> The catastrophe is caused by the ancient force of the Figure, but the 
> catastrophe itself is surely not ancient. Or is it?"
> 
> 
> Maybe it's more to do with memory - ironic that a "memorial" arch is 
> used to introduce a terrible catastrophe already forgotten. Part of 
> the uncanniness of the NYC destruction is the way nobody seems to 
> remember it. Something about the modern city's ability to replace 
> itself, to replace historical memory with symbols or icons that don't 
> act as memorial, only simulations?
> 
> As for the arch being a portal, I think of it (and other arches in the
> novel) more as thresholds - not joining two distinct places but 
> dividing a fluid space. Drawing a line in the sand, as it were, saying

> "here" is now different from "there". Crossing the threshold means 
> acknowledging that difference, interpolating it.

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