GR - Persian ceilings

[grladams at teleport.com]

http://www.pd49.dial.pipex.com/pockets/weird/entoptic/entop/entoptic.htm
Entoptic patterns, do you think?
Scrub your fists into your eyelids, what do you see? Persian ceilings. But
why smooth??

Jill

Original Message:
-----------------
From: David Morris fqmorris at gmail.com
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:44:58 -0600
To: miksaapja at gmail.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: GR - Persian ceilings


I also found it in Google Books GR page:

http://books.google.com/books?id=iPDGp7VT8H8C&pg=PA270&lpg=PA270&dq=persian+
ceilings&source=web&ots=lqo5Q8ICdI&sig=TF2B0Dc1gCoA1fYAd6gbE2guzQo#PPA270,M1

As you say, Speed & Perdoo are sent out to check the truth of
Slothrop's map, and Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" is referenced.  From
the notes of the opera: "A man in the thrall of his erotic drive! His
servant even keeps a record of them all: 231 in Germany, and a grand
total of 1,003 in Spain." Pynchon calls this record "Don Giovanni's
map."

GR then says they are "infected with the prevailing fondness out there
for mindless pleasures."  His description of their erotic intoxication
is like that of someone on acid, *full of female-sexual
hallucinations*:

The melon becomes the sexual victim from a woman's moon-like (and
Persian ceiling'ed) face "emerges"  and a menage-au-trois is alluded
to.  Next an old woman becomes their "joint Mother, combining the
worst traits of Mrs. Perdoo and Mrs. Speed - in fact she is turning
into *just* that, even as they watch."  The hag them becomes the
dangerous temptress to whom they are about to succumb until the evil
acid-(green snot)-clown breaks up the party!

THIS IS THE PYNCHON I LOVE!

I can't think of any obscure references linking the imagery you
quoted.  Of course the moon is commonly considered feminine, a
goddess.  But this is only one of the many female forms alluded to in
this GR episode.  Beyond that the Persian ceiling, intaglio net, and
melon/moon surfaces all have to do with textures apt to form visual
imagery, hallucinations via LSD.

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/g/goddess_2_the_virgin.html

"In the Hebrew Gospels the name Mary is designated by almah which
means "young woman." The reason that Mary is held to have remained a
virgin by Catholics and some Christians is because Matthew in his
gospel used the Greek word parthenos, meaning "virgin," instead of
almah when referring to the virgin birth of Jesus. Also almah was
derived from Persian Al-Mah, the unmated Moon goddess. Another cognate
of this term was the Latin alma, "living soul of the world," which is
essentially identical to the Greek psyche, and the Sanskrit shakti. So
the ancient Holy Virgins, or temple-harlots, were "soul-teachers" or
"soul- mothers." Thus comes the term alma mater."


On Jan 29, 2008 11:51 AM, János Székely <miksaapja at gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes, that's what I suspect too.
> It's the Anglo-American team of Harvey Speed and Floyd Perdoo in London,
May 1945, trying to investigate Slothrop's sex adventures and enjoying
Mindless Pleasures on the way. At a greengrocer's Perdoo selects a
cantaeloupe, "in whose intaglio net now, as among craters of the pale moon,
a face is indeed emerging, the face of a captive woman with eyes cast
downward, lids above as smooth as Persian ceilings. . . ."


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