AtDTdA (9): 242

[Mark Kohut]

Jasper,
   
  Once in a college class, it was a philosophy course, the prof said if you can write a two sentence 'essay' shosing you get the question, you can get an A. Or you can write a longer explanatory essay.
   
  Here is the three sentence version: The railroad is made of iron and steel. Pynchon hates iron and steel. Iron and steel can kill and do.   (He is not into 'trade' and its benefits. He is
  harrowing a world)
   
  I wonder if one source for Pynchon's vision of railroads is a semi-famous bit of writing by none other than House of Pyncheon Hawthorne....he once as a writing exercise inhis journal/notebooks went outside into that New England nature that Thoreau was living in and wrote all he heard and saw and thought. This exercise in pure accurate nature writing had to become something else when he heard the piercing so0und of a train whistle. He got that 
  intrusion down too. TRP must know it and appreciate it as intrusion, as a jarring of living naturally....

Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com> wrote:
  Jasper Fidget wrote:

>Today's kick-ass essay question:
>Discuss the significance of the railway lines to Renfrew/Werfner, AtD, 
>and/or Pynchon. Pay special attention to the idea of "flows of power"; 
>Renfrew says this can be expressed as "massive troop movements", but note 
>also that railways help facilitate trade, and strong trading partners 
>rarely go to war with one another. (Of course they often team up and go to 
>war against some other team....) Also consider the idea of 
>rail-worthiness. Who decides? Super-scholars may choose to make 
>connections with Pynchon's other work (COL49 and M&D come immediately to 
>mind).

Boy, you're off to a great start, Jasper! Thanks for that wonderful flurry 
of posts.
I don't have the time right now for an extended reply to today's "kick-ass 
essay question," but in lieu of a new essay, here's a link to a previous 
post, where I tried to address at least some of your railway questions:

http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0704&msg=117281&sort=author

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