ATDTDA 715

[Mark Kohut]

Michael B. wrote:

"I'm always impressed when reading of
spy networks, in how persuasive a spymaster must
be.  And Theign seems to have been very talented."

Yes! and in these sections, i might suggest that TRP is
using that notion---especially with ANOTHER female
seduction here to say: this is how it begins, flirting, teasing,
hand on leg then 'bedfellows" and we have the linking of 
the personal and the polis, in MBs phrasing, then a little
sadomasochism, a power relationship----leading to
GR and Blicero/Gottfried in TRPs fictional Histories---
and electrical stimulation to make it all visceral
--Cf. electricity as metaphor in the rest of AD--

Cyprian is a nice guy, still an innocent, not as sharp as
many, with some real religious feeling at the start
of these sections, (as MB observed). 

In fact Cyprian's religious
feeling is a traditional kind of  Christian Orthodoxy, I believe, which
leads me to another memory from Wittgenstein's Vienna....
Tolstoy, as world-famous around this time as Deepak Chopra,
had become very religious and a non-fiction book or two of his
spiritual beliefs were huge at the time--these have faded in cultural history
whereas his major novels have not--- and were part of a moral compass
for many "critical intellectuals" in Vienna, including Ludwig Wittgenstein......

Who was also gay. 

Maybe TRP is paying LW homage with an aspect or two of Cyprian? 



It all happens as smoothly as a Persian ceiling.......






----- Original Message ----
From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
To: Pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 6:32:15 AM
Subject: ATDTDA 715

715 3 "an attitude toward women that got more comfortable than
ambivalent" - Theign and Yzhitza found each other and
Theign was able to parlay the encounter
into a spy relationship with Yzhitza.

I'm always impressed when reading of
spy networks, in how persuasive a spymaster must
be.  And Theign seems to have been very talented.

715 8 "Kundschaftstelle" - counterintelligence bureau,
which Colonel Redl had headed.
http://www.btinternet.com/~J.Pasteur/Army.html
mentions that by allowing Redl to kill himself,
his captors had forfeited the opportunity to
interrogate him for the details of his betrayals.

715 9 "rogue historians" fleeting mention here...
may mean something?

715 18 - Leo Slezak sang tenor, at the Vienna Opera
and later in New York with Toscanini conducting.
Also pursued a movie career and was famous for
humor and the ability to ad lib.  Last role was as the
portly Sultan in a production of "Munchhausen"

715 28 "Favoriten" - a district of Vienna
auf deutsch: http://www.wien-vienna.at/favoriten/index.htm

another "former city that's been annexed to the bigger
city" (like Mestre) and is now the 10th district (Bezirk)
of Vienna.
it has its own coat of arms, in the middle of which
is depicted  the "spinnerin am kreuz"
a tale of a woman in a tower spinning
(hmm, where have we run into that b4 <col49>)
http://www.virtualvienna.net/columns/billie/spinnerinamkreuz.html

the sense I get is, it's a different part of town for
Cyprian, who's changing...

715 30 "not so much seeking exotic flirtation
as to be absorbed somehow into a mobility, a bath
of language he did not speak, as he had once
sought in carnal submission an escape route
from what it seemed of the world he was being
asked to bear..."

"what it seemed of the world he was being
asked to bear" -
his place in his father's army, the tribulations
of what Vibe would refer to as "a climber" --

escaped from that into his uncle's world of
homoerotic discipline, but the intrigues of the world
still found their way to his door...

"bath" of language (harkening back to the baths we just left)
"escape route" - bringing to mind the R.U.S.H. plans of Theign
"mobility" - the original form of the word "mob", used in M&D as well


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