AtDTDA: 20 Big, Big pink tab 561

[Mark Kohut]

Dear Robin,
   
  Now that is an essay, so to speak, that ties in so much.........thank you.
   
  The Biblical Pentecostal Word is no more, of course. But we still want it.
   
  In GR and now AtD, it comes as the Angel of Death.....??
   
  Q: surely true what you say about the Quaternions, but are they not also in AtD
  a metaphor for more than what the Vectorists are?.....another example of a 'lost larger range"?.......
   
  and even this larger range, mathematics---which lead inevitably to bad things?---is another
  archangel of death?
   
  ????

robinlandseadel at comcast.net wrote:
  Mark Kohut:
concept of Pentocost appears.....
remember C of L49 and Pentocost?
The Word......

"and it is in this Pentecostal moment that the Quaternions descend, 
to take their earthly residence among the thoughts of men."

Hamilton recieves Quaternions as a vision, he has a sudden urge to get the 
message down so he whips out a pocket knife and writes it into stone before he 
loses the vision.

If nothing else, Quaternions are central to the development of electronics and 
nuclear physics and by extension the military-industrial complex. And of course, 
the military-industrial complex and attendant conspiracy theories run rampant in 
his novels. As do very specific references to the occult. For me, that 
particular paranoia complex peaks in The Crying of Lot 49. Enochian magic is 
touched upon in The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow and Against the Day. 
It's probably in the other books as well, but these novels are brushed by the wings 
of descending angels of death, leaving a particularly dark stain.

"and it is in this Pentecostal moment that the Quaternions descend, 
to take their earthly residence among the thoughts of men."
AtD, 561

Thy pitiless unmanning is most meet, 

Thinks Ercole the zany Paraclete. 

Descended this malign, Unholy Ghost, 

Let us begin thy frightful Pentecost. 

The lights went out, and in the quiet somebody across the arena from 
Oedipa distinctly said, "Ick." Metzger said, "You want to go?" 

"I want to see about the bones," said Oedipa. 
CoL49, 52

She heard a lock snap shut; the sound echoed a moment. Passerine 
spread his arms in a gesture that seemed to belong to the priesthood 
of some remote culture; perhaps to a descending angel. The auctioneer 
cleared his throat. Oedipa settled back, to await the crying of lot 
49. 

The descending Angel in Gravity's Rainbow is the Angel of Rilke, 
the Angel of Shock and Awe. Here, in Hamilton country, the
message of that Angel is recieved in the form of an equation.

http://www.auschwitz.dk/Mengele.htm

I wonder what to make of the Tundra ad in the link?
And, yes, there really is something about I.G. Farben that 
makes it stand out from the crowd, don't you think?


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