ATDTDA (5.1) - The Etienne-Louis Malus

[Glenn Scheper]

Vormance as Vortex + Romance? I echecked etymology
and got a shock: Romance is not of ( roe + mancy ),
looking into the seed; as I had previously figured.

But it definitely fits a descent into a maelstrom.
Like the many towers and pits and maelstroms of Poe,
like Rhime of the Ancient Mariner, maybe Moby Dick,
and others I've read, of authors all my fellows.



vortex noun vortexes, vortices
  1. A whirlpool or whirlwind; any whirling mass or motion.
    Thesaurus: whirl, whirlpool, whirlwind, maelstrom, eddy.
  2. A situation or activity into which all surrounding people or things are 
helplessly and dangerously drawn.
Derivative: vortical adj
Derivative: vortically adverb
Etymology: 17c: Latin, meaning ·a whirlpool', from vortere to turn.
  -- http://www.allwords.com/word-vortex.html



1. a whirling mass of water, esp. one in which a force of suction operates,
as a whirlpool.

2. a whirling mass of air, esp. one in the form of a visible column or spiral,
as a tornado.

3. a whirling mass of fire, flame, etc.

4. a state of affairs likened to a whirlpool for violent activity,
irresistible force, etc.

5. something regarded as drawing into its powerful current everything that
surrounds it: the vortex of war.

6. (in Cartesian philosophy) a rapid rotatory movement of cosmic matter
about a center, regarded as accounting for the origin or phenomena of 
bodies or systems of bodies in space.

[Origin: 1645-55; < L, var. of vertex vertex ]
  -- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vortex



romance
c.1300, "story of a hero's adventures," also (c.1330), "vernacular language 
of France" (as opposed to Latin), from O.Fr. romanz "verse narrative," 
originally an adverb, "in the vernacular language," from V.L. *romanice scribere 
"to write in a Romance language" (one developed from Latin instead of Frankish), 
from L. Romanicus "of or in the Roman style," from Romanus "Roman" (see Roman). 
The connecting notion is that medieval vernacular tales were usually about 
chivalric adventure. Literary sense extended by 1667 to "a love story." Extended 
1612 to other modern languages derived from Latin (Spanish, Italian, etc.). 
Meaning "adventurous quality" first recorded 1801; that of "love affair, 
idealistic quality" is from 1916. The verb meaning "court as a lover" is from 
1942.
  -- http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=romance


Even before reading these posts...

> > - In any case, isn't it strongly implied that the Vormance adventure ends
> > in a tragedy with far-reaching, even world-changing consequences?
> 
> > - Why does the fate of the Vormance Expedition seem to loom so large while
> > we're approaching it, and as we watch its terrible (though not overly
> > specific) aftermath unfold, yet not seem to figure as an 'event which has
> > happened and had an effect on the world' elsewhere in the book?
> 
> I see this foreboding as a microcosmic enactment of that larger foreboding 
> that runs through most of AtD: the general idea that an apocalypse (WW1) 
> looms in the horizon.
> 
> I rather tend to think that Pynchon's treatment of 'the inevitability of 
> historical events' aims to dispute that very 'inevitability'.

I had thought that the description of the monster shifting in the ship,
whose extent far exceeded that part that they had knowingly freighted,
was akin to my psychological disturbance following upon autofellatio.

I have long said the "core metaphor" Pynchon elaborates but does not
reveal, is of the autofellator and the ontological changes to follow.

1. One becomes annihilated, abject, taboo.

2. One discovers this same knowledge arcane knowledge in religions
and in the classic poets, hence, it was already always well known.
(Who knew?--Only the few.)

3. Ordinary reality just keeps going on, and on...
Where is my long-awaited apocalypse!?

Again, like Lew Basnight. (I liked that Black-as-Night insight.)

Yours truly,
Glenn Scheper
http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/
glenn_scheper + at + earthlink.net
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