Atdtda[4]: Summary 97 - 99.15

[Michel]

97.1 - 97.19: An electric/electrifying paragraph , due to "man-made 
lightning", 97.4: objects metallic seem to come alive, "all seeking the 
magnetic memory of that long-ago visit", 97.12-13.  Man (be it Veterans 
from the "Rebellion" [sic], or children) are hugely affected -- 
children, as often happens in a Pynchon novel, playing a counter-role.  
These 3 sentences are describing the effects of a scientific experiment 
by Tesla, who is not yet named.  It has magical effects on animate and in-.

97.20-98.11: Kit's part of this scene.  He's a "Vectorist" (97.23) , and 
a "circuit rider" (in a double meaning) (98.1-2), having taken on any 
job, as long as it involves electricity, which is not difficult because 
Colorado is building turbines everywhere.  His education in electricity 
is not [yet] theoretical.  Tesla mentioned.

98.12-98.18 Luckily, out of "union loyalty"  (98.13) some Cornell (where 
Pynchon graduated) and Yale (Slothrop) students, and other institutions 
not named, lend him the theoretical works: Maxwell, Heaviside.  After 
grasping the scientific notation, he gets the "knack" ... (98.18)

98.19-99.15 ... and "it could have been a religion" (98.19): we are 
offered a sketch of the Vectorist Church with the "god of the Current" 
(98.19-20), "Scriptures and commandments and liturgy" (98.20-21) , 
Faraday as its mystic prophet - a mystic longing Kit (also) develops, 
while becoming an apostle of this Church, or a theologian, or a priest 
(anyone?), studying and teaching the scriptures.  And then, one night, 
"a window opened for him into the Invisible" (99.1 and do note the 
capital I) and he is 'shown' a view of movement = energy = electricity = 
light.  "He saw it" (99.12), maybe in a rather bilocated way ("it 
represented a jump from one place to another", 99.11): "The [...] 
expressions [...] would henceforth figure as clumsier repetitions of the 
truth [...]. (99.12-14)" 

Kit's conversion is complete, and, as we will see later, he is ready for 
a diabolical deal.

Michel.



	

	
		
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