ATDTDA 765

[David Payne]

On Thu, 28 Feb 2008, Ya Sam  wrote:

> ATDTDA 765

>"lacked gravitas" It’s a Latin word, a noun formed from the adjective gravis, heavy. English borrowed the
> Latin word via French as gravity at about the beginning of the sixteenth century. Then, it had much the same
> sense as gravitas now has: weight, influence, or authority. It could also refer to some matter that was grave
> (which comes from the same Latin source) or to a solemn dignity, a sobriety or seriousness of conduct. A
> weighty word indeed, the opposite of levity, a lightness that causes bodies to rise, a tendency for people to
> exhibit lightweight attitudes.

Of course there's the interesting play on word here, wherein Doosra does not lack weight physically (no lack of gravity's influence):

ATD (765): "Young Doosra was younger than Kit had imagined and lacked gravitas. Plumper than than the general run of desert ascectic..." 

The Latin gravis is also the root of "gravid" -- which Pynchon uses a couple times in ATD and M&D, including the beautifully mystifying (for me) phrase that I am always harping about:

M&D (93): "The Girls were taken on a short but dizzying journey, straight up, into the AEther, until there beside them in the grayish Starlight is the ancient, gravid Earth, the Fescue become a widthless Wand of Light, striking upon it brilliantly white-hot Arcs."





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