ATDTDA (5.1) - The Etienne-Louis Malus

[John BAILEY]

Ho ho ho. I'd just been trying to remember if Dr Vormance's first name
is mentioned, and then thanks to the pynchon wiki realised it's Alden. 
 
If the Vormance bit was a vaguely germanic hint at "prediction" or
something...
 
al den would preface this with "aluminian that". 
 
Just thought that would be rather pynchonian.
 
Also, did we get anywhere with what happens to the American "city" in
the rest of the novel? If it's NY (and come on, there are no other
cities it might refer to, though I'm not taking away from the deliberate
ambiguity) then plenty of characters will be wandering round New York in
a few scant chapters with no, er, fallout. Is it NY Hunter first
resurfaces later? Can't recall. If so, you could see his Escape from New
York not as a literal movement but of shifting realities, from a
post-apocalyptic one to...something else. An imaginative relocation.
 
Or, in a more AtD way, these characters (inc Chums, later Lew, and so
on) bilocate. They don't exist as real or fictional within the diegetic
world of the novel. They exist (sometimes) in several of the various
realities it establishes.
 
Also, the other novel most associated with NY in AtD is Dally, and she
and Hunter will share a fair bit of time together later in the novel,
again in the context of framing (paintings, realities, etc).

________________________________

From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
Behalf Of davemarc
Sent: Wednesday, 21 March 2007 2:21 PM
To: Pynchlist
Subject: Re: ATDTDA (5.1) - The Etienne-Louis Malus


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 <mailto:JBAILEY at theage.com.au>  
	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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