ATDTDA (3) Dynamitic mania, 80-86

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

Tore Rye Anderson wrote:
>
> "The explosion was terrific, shrapnel and parts of men and animals flew
> everywhere, superheated steam blasting through a million irregular flueways
> among the moving fragments, a huge ragged hemisphere of gray dust, gone pink
> with blood, rose and spread, and survivors staggered around in it blinded
> and coughing miserably." (985)
>
> Is this is explosion really terrific, 

The original usage of "terrific", perhaps not completely superseded by the time written about, is the same as "terrible" - inspiring terror.

...in some sense the modern colloquial sense of "terrific" (as "great") derives from an admiration of destructive power that is embedded in our culture - really good psychedelic experiences are often described in destructive terms ('blown away', 'killer weed', etc) for instance...I was first struck with this notion way back in the 60s watching an episode of The Patty Duke Show ("but they're cousins, identical cousins all the way...").  She and her friends had formed a musical group, and after they played a demo for an agent, he kept saying "dynamite"!  I'd never heard that phrase as praise until then, but of course it's fairly common.  

Possibly such usage is a way of backing away from harshness, finding the transformative power in destruction and harnessing that to music, psychedelic experience, and other "kinder, gentler" modes of expression...

In this AtD passage I think both senses are active - Pynchon having recently described himself in a letter to an editor as an historical novelist, concerned with original usages, but of course also with current ones.