The phrase

[kelber at mindspring.com]

I'm totally out of quibbles ...

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>Sent: Jan 24, 2008 11:52 AM
>To: kelber at mindspring.com
>Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: The phrase
>
>Oops, let me correct my statement below.  I just re-read the phrase
>and saw something I'd missed:
>
>The "Realm of the Penny-foolish and Pound-idiotick" is the same place
>as "contrary to Reason," and the logical/reasonable place they are
>both opposing is "the Moment they must pass over the Crest of the
>Savage Mountain,"  a moment they can pretend won't come.  It is the
>"day" they are "against," and this opposition IS "contrary to reason,"
> because every moment that passes brings them closer to that point of
>no return.  So the two do enhance each other, but "reason" doesn't
>mean enlightenment.  It means the logical end of their progression,
>that "day."
>
>Pynchon's sentences can be so jumpy!
>
>David Morris
>
>On Jan 24, 2008 10:27 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> More quibbling:
>>
>> " ... yet, whilst they bide in this Realm of the Penny-foolish and
>> Pound-idiotick, till the Moment they must pass over the Crest of the
>> Savage Mountain, does their remain to them, contrary to Reason,
>> against the Day, a measurable chance, to turn, to go back out of no
>> more than Stubbornness, and somehow make all come right ..."
>>
>> You interpret "contrary to Reason, against the Day" as enhancemants of
>> each other, and I disagree.  The "day" is enhanced by what follows it,
>> "a measurable chance, to turn, to go back."  That is, a possible time
>> in the future which is the opposite of the time mentioned just before,
>> " the Moment they must pass over the Crest of the Savage Mountain."
>>
>> At least that's what makes the most sense to me...  (but I can also
>> see it as you do)
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>>
>> On Jan 24, 2008 10:13 AM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>> > To quibble further about p. 683:
>> >
>> > TRP uses the construction: "contrary to Reason, against the Day" then, later in the same sentence: "to turn, to go back"
>> >
>> > In both cases, the phrase after the comma is a restating (or enhancement) of the first.  Reason: Day, as turn: go back.  Day is akin to enlightenment, directed reasoning.
>> >
>> > Laura
>>