ATDTDA (5.1) - The Etienne-Louis Malus

[davemarc]

Vormance--could it be foreshadowing? That would actually be pretty funny if the section is understood as, say, a Lovecraft parody. An outstanding quality of Lovecraft is his penchant for extended foreshadowing, spending pages building up a dreadful revelation. 

http://www.lovecraftcountry.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-106.html

Still cautious about overemphasizing the 9/11 connection--especially in this section,

d.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: John BAILEY 
  To: pynchon-l at waste.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2007 6:54 PM
  Subject: RE: ATDTDA (5.1) - The Etienne-Louis Malus


  Re: "Vormance" - and sorry if this has been mentioned, skimming here - but I take it as something to do with...

  "vor" - in front of, fore in German, maybe other teutonic tongues
  and 
  "mance" - like "-mancy", divination etc.

  Basically, foresight, scrying, prediction. Which totally fits with the readings of this section of the novel as presaging 9/11, and themselves seeming eerily presaged in the lead-up.



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf Of David Casseres
  Sent: Wednesday, 21 March 2007 10:27 AM
  To: Monte Davis
  Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
  Subject: Re: ATDTDA (5.1) - The Etienne-Louis Malus


  I can't help thinking of those many different versions of "The Mummy's Curse," in which a group of scientists, against the earnest advice of their guides, take an artifact out of its concealment and ship it home for their museum.  And as soon as they get to New York, it breaks out of its confinement and causes havoc. 

  Dr. Vormance himself points out the parallel on p. 141.  And while I can't find the text just now, isn't the "nunatak" described as pyramidal in shape?

  Just a wild-ass guess, but I think if you actually dug through all those old movies, you'd eventually stumble across a name that looked like "Vormance." 


  On 3/20/07, Monte Davis <monte.davis at bms.com> wrote: 
    Robin:

    >>I'm sure we'll get into more detail, but the
    >>"Vormance Expedition" is Pynchon's vision of 9/11, moved into the
    >>time zone and period ambience of Against the Day. 
    >>
    I'm with you that the *destruction of the city* has no other resonance
    nearly as loud as 9/11, but I'm not sure that extends to the expedition
    itself -- which as davemarc says, owes more to Shelley, Poe, and Lovecraft. 

    Whatever we (or for that matter Al Qaeda or the conspiracy buff on the
    corner) may advance as the "causes of" or "reasons  for" 9/11, I don't
    see how they map to "scientists dig up and bring home an ancient 
    artifact, suggestive of pre- or non-human origin,  that they should have
    left untouched."






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