AtDDtA1: The Declining Light

Wed Jan 24 14:52:53 CST 2007

   "Among the herbaceous nap below, in the declining light, among the
brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast-bags, running heedless, as
across some earthly firmament, sped a stout gentleman in a Norfolk
jacket and plus-fours, clutching a straw 'skimmer' to the back of his
head with one hand while with the other keeping balanced upon his
shoulder a photographc camera and tripod...." (AtD, Pt. I, Ch. 2, p.
13)

"the declining light ... earthly firmament ... a photographic camera and tripod"

Cf. ...

"By the the time Lindsay could remove the optical instrument from the
moist hands of Miles Blundell, and induce the consequently disgruntled
youth to throw out the grapnels and assist Darby in securing the great
airship to 'Mother Earth,' the indecorous couple had avnished among
the foliage, as presently would this sector of the Republic into the
aflling darkness." (ibid.)

... i.e, the last sentence of the paragraph neatly inverts salient
elements of the first, light/darkness, earthly firmament/"Mother
Earth," clutching/moist hands, camera/optical instruent ...

"among the brighter star-shapes of exploded ballast-bags"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRRZ2_AyW34

One recurring sketch on both the NBC and CBS shows has been the
destruction of household items by various methods including
explosives, steamrollers, and - most frequently - throwing them off
the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater.

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

Another recurring gag was Letterman destroying items, from throwing
watermelons off the roof of a five story building to running dozens of
hot dogs through a compressor to demolishing the Energizer Bunny with
a baseball bat.

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

5.  David Letterman stands on the roof of the CBS studio in New York.
He throws a watermelon with an intial velocity in the +y-direction
(upwards) of 15 feet/sec. It a takes 7.5 seconds for the watermelon to
smash on the pavement below. How tall, in feet, is the CBS studio?
(neglect any air friction).

793
1020
906
388
163

http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~ipser/fall2003/stantfall1997/s_exam1.html

"as across some earthly firmament"

As above, so below ...

Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek schema of seeing the same
patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos. It may have begun
with Democritus in the 5th century B.C. or with Pythagoras and is a
philosophical conception that runs through Socrates, and Plato and
through to the Renaissance. With Pythagoras, the discovery of the
golden ratio and its philosophical conception called the Golden mean,
the Greeks saw that this golden ratio is repeated in all parts of the
ordered universe both large and small. The Greeks were very concerned
with a rational explanation of everything and saw this repetition of
the golden mean as a pattern that was reproduced throughout reality.
It is a product of the ancient Greek mentality of seeing reality as a
whole and noticing patterns that are repeated throughout all the
levels of reality. In short, it is the recognition that the same
traits appear in entities of many different sizes, from one man to the
entire human population.

Macrocosm/microcosm is a Greek compound of μακρο- "Macro-" and μικρο-
"Micro-", which are Greek respectively for "large" and "small", and
the word κόσμος kósmos which means "order" as well as "world" or
"ordered world"....

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

MACROCOSM AND MICROCOSM

The idea indicated by the couple, Macrocosm-Microcosm, is the belief
that there exists between the universe and the individual human being
an identity both anatomical and psychical. The macrocosm is the
universe as a whole, whose parts are thought of as parts of a human
body and mind. The microcosm is an individual human being whose parts
are thought of as analogous to the parts of the larger universe. Thus
the idea is similar to all ideas that project human traits into
Nature, ideas such as that of creative causation, natural teleology,
moral progress as a natural law, and obviously all instances of the
pathetic fallacy....

http://etext.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv3-16

"sped a stout gentleman"

... the microcosm of the body was figured the macrocosm of the
kingdom, and of the universe itself.

This little kingdom, man

Falstaff describes the way that sack warms the blood, and

. . . makes it course from the inwards to the parts extremes. It
illumineth the face, which as a beacon gives warning to all the rest
of this little kingdom, man, to arm, and then the vital commoners and
inland petty spirits [vital spirits, fluids] muster me all to their
captain, the heart, who, great and puffed up with this retinue, doth
any deed of courage ... (Henry IV, Part Two, 4. 3. 107-113)

In Coriolanus, Menenius calms the mutinous citizens of Rome with a
jocular tale about the time "when all the body's members/Rebelled
against the belly" (I. i. 97-98)....

http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/macromicro.html

"a Norfolk jacket and plus-fours, clutching a straw 'skimmer' "

Norfolk jacket

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

http://members.tripod.com/~histclo/Norfolk.html

http://www.aristarkhova.org/victorian/art/costume/90s/2.html

"'Here, I'll even lend you this Norfolk jacket ...'" (GR, Pt. I, p. 184)

"Bristly Norfolk jacket, pinstripe suit, anything ..." (GR, Pt. I, p. 201)

Also, e.g., ...

   "Christmas Eve, 1955, Benny Profane, wearing black levis, suede
jacket, sneaker and big cowboy hat, happened to pass through Norfolk,
Virginia...." (V., Ch. 1, p. 1)

"... a somewhat dishevel'd Norfolk Terrier, with a raffish Gleam in
its eye,--" (M&D, Ch. 3, p. 18)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=60179

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=60194

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=60297

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=60299

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0209&msg=70682

   "Ev'rywhere but at Norfolk, where talk of Passion far outweighs its
Enactment,--'" (M&D, p. 396)

plus-fours

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

http://www.bartleby.com/68/56/4656.html

"skimmer"

http://www.top-hats.com/2628.htm

http://www.millerhats.com/straw4.htm

http://www.harmonyonstage.com/hats/strawhats.html

"a floral diadem of some sort"

A diadem is also a jewelled ornament worn by women with the shape of a
half crown, placed over the forehead (in this sense, also called
tiara). In some societies it is also a wreath worn around the head.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diadem_(personal_wear)

A second origin is the traditional wreath or garland, which was used
in the Greek religion....

[...]

By now, there was hardly any difference between the Greek wreath,
which had become a symbol of semi-divine monarchy, and the oriental
diadem, which the Greeks believed to be the symbol of divine
monarchy....

http://www.livius.org/di-dn/diadem/diadem.html

Alpha Comae Berenices (α Com / α Comae Berenices) is a star in the
constellation Coma Berenices (Berenice's Hair).... It also has the
traditional name Diadem. It is said to represent the crown worn by
Queen Berenice....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diadem_%28star%29

And see as well, e.g., ...

http://www.fillingthesky.com/id67.html

http://www.mallorcaweb.net/masm/Coma1.htm

http://www.winshop.com.au/annew/Diadem.html

http://www.tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Egypt/ptolemies/berenice_ii.htm