ATDTDA (14) - Frank/Iceland spar
kelber at mindspring.com
kelber at mindspring.com
Tue Jul 31 13:31:32 CDT 2007
1. First of all, I want to thank you, Mike, for your copious notes. The fact that you haven't gotten a
huge response doesn't mean they're not being avidly read. It's summertime in the Northern Hemisphere,
after all. Personally, I've been putting in overtime at my main occupation, wallowing in depression, or
I would have responded sooner.
2. This whole Frank in Mexico sequence strikes me as being the most Iceland-sparlike part of the
Iceland Spar section of the book.
(p. 375)"'Sounds to me like what you're really interested in is that Iceland spar,' Ewball said.
Frank shrugged, as if it would be embarrassing to admit how much.
'Espato is what they call it down there. Sometimes you hear espanto, which is something either horrifying or amazing, depending.'
'Like looking at somebody through a pure enough specimen and seeing not just the man but his ghost alongside him?'"
Lots of doubling in this section. Mexico as a mirror of Texas, across the border. The jail as an
underground mirror of the town above it, complete with a cantina, fandango girls, etc. While there,
Frank dreams of "voyaging by air, high in the air, in a conveyance whose actual working principles were mysterious to him." Later, above ground, when he's flying in the air in some mescaline-like vision, only to find himself descending deeper and deeper underground.
Then there are all the double city-state names: Zacatecas, Zacatecas; Guanajuato, Guanajuato, etc., plus a south-of-the-border Estrella who reminds him of the northern Estrella.
Viewing "the man and his ghost" through Iceland spar: Frank, like Reef, is mistaken for the
Kieselguhr Kid. Webb Traverse appears as a ghost (Deuce sees his face floating near Lake) or his
ghostly presence is expressed in his sons: people look at them and see Webb's image (Assuming Webb
is the K.K. - If not, the K.K.'s image is reflected in father and sons).
Frank and Ewball (p. 386) argue about which one should be the Kid, which the sidekick; just as Deuce and Sloat argued, north-of-the-border. When Frank meets the three Tarahumares, they thank him for saving their lives. He explains that they're thanking the wrong person:
"'Somebody saved our lives,' said the Indian.
'Yes, but they're gone now.'
'But you're here.'"
Thanking the sidekick of the life-saver is the same as thanking the actual life-saver. So when Frank crosses the border and kills Sloat, Deuce's sidekick, in some sense, it's as good as killing Deuce. Maybe that's why he gives up the chase.
And of course, Frank finds Sloat by seeing his vision through a piece of Iceland spar.
Laura
More information about the Pynchon-l
mailing list