AtDDtA(15): As If in a Dream

[Dave Monroe]

On 8/12/07, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:

>   "As if in a dream, they would come to recall attending Candlebrow U. not as visitors to a summer Conference but as full-time music students ..." (AtD, Pt. II, p. 418)

Recall ...

   "Through the flowing water, the holes of the old Hohner Slothrop
are warped one by one, squares being bent by notes, a visual blues
being played by a clear stream." (GR, Pt. IV, p. 622)

... to ...

"It's doubtful that he can ever be 'found' again, in the conventional
sense of 'postively identified and detained.' " (GR, Pt. IV, p. 712)

... to ...

"There is no way to tell which of the faces is Slothrop's: the only
printed credit that might apply to him is  'Harmonica, kazoo--a
friend.'" (GR, Pt. IV, p. 742)

... (and noting the, uh, aeolian harpitude of that old Hohner in that
first passage ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_harp

http://www.victorianweb.org/previctorian/stc/gw.html

http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/AEolian_Harp.html )
there seems to be a certain, if not outright loss, indeterminacy, at
any rate, plurality, perhaps, even, of identity associated with the
harmonica in Those Pynchonian Texts.  Cf. kazoos.  Cf. ...

   "Other Units of the Chums of Chance meanwhile chose lateral
solutions, sidestepping the crisis by passing into metaphorical
identities ...." (AtD, Pt. II, p. 418)

What IS the "Marching Academy Harmonica Band" a metaphor ...

Main Entry: met·a·phor
Pronunciation: 'me-t&-"for also -f&r
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English methaphor, from Middle French or Latin;
Middle French metaphore, from Latin metaphora, from Greek, from
metapherein to transfer, from meta- + pherein to bear -- more at BEAR
1 : a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting
one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a
likeness or analogy between them (as in drowning in money); broadly :
figurative language -- compare SIMILE
2 : an object, activity, or idea treated as a metaphor : SYMBOL

Main Entry: meta-
Variant(s): or met-
Function: prefix
Etymology: New Latin & Medieval Latin, from Latin or Greek; Latin,
from Greek, among, with, after, from meta among, with, after; akin to
Old English mid, mith with, Old High German mit
1 a : occurring later than or in succession to : after <metestrus> b :
situated behind or beyond <metencephalon> <metacarpus> c : later or
more highly organized or specialized form of <metaxylem>
2 : change : transformation <metaplasia>
3 [metaphysics] : more comprehensive : transcending
<metapsychological> -- usually used with the name of a discipline to
designate a new but related discipline designed to deal critically
with the original one <metamathematics>
4 a : involving substitution at or characterized by two positions in
the benzene ring that are separated by one carbon atom <meta-xylene> b
: derived from by loss of water <metaphosphoric acid>

Main Entry: bear
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): bore  /'bor/; borne also born  /'born/; bear·ing
Etymology: Middle English beren to carry, bring forth, from Old
English beran; akin to Old High German beran to carry, Latin ferre,
Greek pherein
transitive verb ...

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary


... FOR?  What does it bear, say, beyond?  Help!  Again!

Meanwhile ...

Moore, Steven.  "Pynchon on Record."
   Pynchon Notes 10 (1982): 56–57.

http://www.ham.muohio.edu/~krafftjm/pn/pn010.pdf

Daw, Laurence.  "More on Pynchon on Record."
    Pynchon Notes 12 (1983): 46–47.

http://www.ham.muohio.edu/~krafftjm/pn/pn012.pdf

http://www.ham.muohio.edu/~krafftjm/backissu.html

http://www.ham.muohio.edu/~krafftjm/pncumbib.html

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_music.html