ATDTDA (5.3) - Word Power

[Carvill John]

From: "Tore Rye Andersen"

<< And of course, on pp. 738-42, Dixon - led by his "Rapture of the North" 
(738) - goes through that "great northern portal." It seems that there are 
plenty of verbal echoes between Dixon's Northern adventure in M&D and the 
Vormance section in AtD, including the repeated use of unusual phrases like 
"toroid" and "Rapture of the North". Surely Pynchon means for the reader to 
catch these echoes (harkening back to one of your first questions this week, 
about the connections between AtD and Pynchon's other novels). The 
recurrence of these statistically unlikely phrases in similar contexts can't 
just be coincidental, but must be Pynchon's way of telling us: "Here: This 
is a connection I would like you to draw." >>

Right, surely Pynchon *must* mean us to see these little, ahem, 'tendrils', 
and go following them back to their roots. Not that I'm suggesting that 
noticing resonances from his other books, and happening upon 
interconnections, isn't worthwhile in itself, but I keep thinking that there 
has to be more to it than that. Is there some hidden structure - over and 
above the cotinuation of themes through his work as a whole - which we might 
be able to understand if we notice, follow, and plot the course of these 
interconnections?

To me, this is a similar question, and carries with it a similar sense of 
'the answer must be yes', to the old puzzle of whether there is, if not an 
'answer', at least some sort of coherent 'meaning' or 'explanation' behind 
the thickly braided tapestry of Pynchon's art. Would we have learned 
anything if Pnchon had allowed us to stay behind with Oedipa at that 
auction? Who was the Kenosa Kid? On one hand, it seems silly to expect these 
questions to have quantifiable answers, but on the other hand Pynchon has 
always seemed to differ in a key way fom other artists who deal in a sense 
of something hidden behind teh everyday, a 'truer' reality just beyond the 
veil. I think of David Lynch, for instance, who seems to me (and I admit I'm 
not a fan) to construct a sense of mystery and strangeness around an 
entirely hollow core, whereas with Pynchon there is a sense that he did have 
some hidden truth or meaning in mind before he started erecting the 
smokescreen. Of course I'm entirely open to the idea that he doesn't - that 
the key to the mystery is the mystery itself - but it doesn't feel that way, 
and that's one - just one, mind - of the special qualities which sets 
Pynchon apart and makes him so unique......

Ok, gott ago change a nappy!

Cheers
JC

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