ATDTDA (5.1) - The Etienne-Louis Malus

[Carvill John]

In response to Mike Bailey:

>>In the 'real' world of Against the Day, are there a
>>lot of airships peopled by daring adventurer crews?

>mos' def'!

You seem so sure! I know the Chums have their Tetris-playing Russian 
counterparts, and there's that Penny Black and her crew... but is there any 
evidence that any of these sets of baloonists 'exists' outside of the Chums' 
world?

>  Fleetwood Vibe's personal adventures, which in turn are relegated - along 
>with Fleetwood himself - to
a dusty wing of the Vibe manse

Indeed, yes. NOt that these are the only characters to take teh stage with a 
flourish and then fade away. I for one assumed Veikko the Finn was going to 
be a major character.


>>Finally, throughout this section we see the Chums & the Vormance party
>>interact. But unlike many others in the book, who seem to be well aware of
>>the Chums' famous adventures, the Vormance people, and Fleetwood Vibe in
>>particular, seem never to have heard of them, Vibe referring to "the
>>airship crew" rather than "the Chums of Chance".
>

>maybe it's a class-related thing.  The Chums being not of the upper crust, 
>certainly, nor their readership

Hmmmm. Never though of the class angle, but I'd say teh Chums are actually 
fairly well up the hierarchy, class-wise, if not upper crust as such then 
certainly not lumpenproletariat.

Thinking more about the other mentions (that I'm aware of) of the Vormance 
expedition, compare page 149 - where "teh scientists of the Vormance 
Expedition had continued to believe it was a meteorite they were bringing 
back" - with Fleetwood Vibe on page 170, saying that "Alden Vormance was 
getting up a party to go north and recover a meteorite."  Now I know it's 
possible that the Vormance part set off in search of any old meteorite, and 
assumed that what they had found was a meteorite, but somehow the two 
angles, time-wise, don't seem to work, for me anyway. And if they ignore the 
Chums' warnings, that whatever they're recovering isn't "the nunatak you 
imagine it", then surely they must think that it *is* a nunatak? In which 
case why would they think it's a meteorite?  Is this a deliberate confusing 
tactic on Pynchon's part, or even - whisper it - a slight misstep by the 
author? Unlikely I know but we had better remain open to all possibilities.

Then there's the question of how the Chums seem to know - in advance - 
exactly what sort of danger the Vormance party are headed for.....

....which takes us back to the question of predeterminism that Tore Rye 
Andersen has a lot of interesting things to say about, and to which I'll try 
to respond later tonight, time permitting. Meanwhile, a four month old baby 
is demanding my attention....

Cheers
JC

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