Pynchon's misdirection

[Joseph Hutchison]

It makes me tingle too! But for a different reason. Turns out I made the
rookie mistake of failing to check THE TEXT. The character our friend
referred to as ³Nefandis² is in fact ³Nefastis² -- John Nefastis, inventor
of the Nefastis Machine. Well, not a word that will lead us to Ovid, but not
a total loss: ³nefandis² seems to be a rare and ³literary² form of
³nefastis,² the more common Latin word which also means ³contrary to
religion, irreligious, impious.² And a form of ³nefastis² does turn up in at
least one relevant text, Book 1 of Horace¹s Odes, poem 35:

eheu, cicatricum et sceleris pudet
fratrumque. quid nos dura refugimus
      aetas? quid intactum nefasti
            liquimus?

Alas, our scars and shameful crimes, our
Fratricides! What has this unfeeling age of ours
      left untried? What impieties has it left
            untouched?

Horace is referring to are the fratricidal crimes of the final civil war of
the Roman Republic. The ode begins with a prayer to the Roman goddess
Fortune, evidently seeking support for Gallus¹ campaign against Arabia.
Horace argues that the campaign would help Romans put the impious civil war
behind them by focusing their energies on an external enemy.

Charles Hollander claims in both ³Pynchon¹s Politics² and ³Pynchon¹s
Inferno² that the notion of civil war is part of the background of Pynchon¹s
ideas. This would make Horace¹s poem relevant.

On the other hand, Pynchon may simply have nabbed the word from a Latin
dictionary....

Joe

on 1/29/07 8:28 PM, Keith at keithsz at mac.com wrote:

> That makes me tingle.
> 
> On Jan 29, 2007, at 6:51 PM, Joseph Hutchison wrote:
> 
> Our commentator should look beyond the OED. ³Nefandis² is a Latin
> adjective meaning ³impious² or ³wicked.²


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