The phrase

[Michael Joseph]

I see in the phrase a sense of Aristotle's notion of time. "Time," wrote 
Aristotle, "is something counted in connection with motion that is 
encountered in the horizon of the earlier and later." In Pynchon's phrase 
there is the desire to move in the opposite direction, to suspend the flow 
of unrepeatable, irreversible and unforeseeable events, and to make 
some sense of life that transcends the haphazardness of the day.
Michael

On Thu, 24 Jan 2008, grladams at teleport.com wrote:

> Here's my two cents.
> First I LOVE this discussion.
>
> Each time I read the phrase I see visuals, I see
> Wheel   A wheel turns forward but the only way it can do so is by a
> constant friction against something else.
>
> Dread  the phrase conjures for me an image of leaning into the wind, or
> putting one's shoulder into pulling or pushing.
>
> Light forms-- light yet not quite there yet. Light coming at you from a
> sunrise, or a lamp on in the night during an all-nighter, or meditation in
> the abscence of light where one visualizes light, but it's really not light
> out yet.
>
>
>
> Original Message:
> -----------------
> From:  kelber at mindspring.com
> Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:14:00 -0500 (EST)
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: The phrase
>
>
> 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
>>>
>
>
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