p. 712 // NP commentary on Little Boxes - another Tangent (Time Mag)

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

          Jill:
          I almost get that this is a cloud that one creates. 
          And whatever song you have selected is the one 
          that pushes one's drive -- a whistle while you work. 
          Sometimes when you do get a song stuck in your 
          head, it's good to "go with it" it makes you get 
          through whatever it is that you're psychically gearing 
          up for or going through with. I once had the "Little 
          Boxes" opener to _Weeds_ stuck in my head for days. 
          I just gave in and kep' it going. 

Ah yes, Malvina Reynolds, "Weeds" had a little roll your own "Little
Boxes" contest. One of those I/IV/V songs that's easy to figure out 
["It goes like this the fourth the fifth ('cept it's a seventh chord when 
you get to the fifth), the minor fall and the major lift (no, wait, that's 
another song. . . .)"] and even easier to get stuck in your head.

The adagio of K. 488 is about as "Romantic" as Mozart ever gets
and the scene of interrogative techniques involving Viennese
Coffee and their deadly pastries is a natural extension of this
naturally Viennese bit of music. Pynchon would have used
the Third Man Theme somewhere 'round here, if it had been 
written already. Our beloved author notes how these "signs"
in Mozart, signs of the awful future to come, are often taken 
for nerves or in Cyprian's case, another cheap romance.
Mozart can get might sticky at times. As regards self-pity,
the adagio of the A major concerto will do quite nicely, thanks.
As a sort of flash-forward to times where one is constantly 
immersed in a music bed, thanks to "Muzak", radios, sound 
beds on television shows, movies [movies in Against
the Day are "pre talkie"] there is a touch of time travel. If anyone
wants to risk having this tune be one's constant companion, I 
recommend Murray Perahia's performance, #42 on this list:

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/listPage.jsp?&list_id=221&start_list=26

Alfred Brendel's performance with Neville Marriner, #50 on the
same list, is also a favorite.

Can't tell you how many times I've walked up Channing in Berkeley,
Schubert's Great C Major either in or out of my head. Particularly after 
a 16 oz. visit to Peet's. Something about the coffee. . . .
-----------------
From: Bekah Bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 20:37:38 -0800
To: markekohut at yahoo.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: p. 712


Perhaps ol' Cyprian can't tell where the music is coming from.  He  
keeps thinking he's actually hearing it but ... (Not unlike an  
hallucination.  Not unlike spying and paranoia in general - "Is it or  
isn't it?"   "Just because you're paranoid,  doesn't mean ...."

Yes, there is a big difference,  although  not in the mind of the  
beholder.   You have to get outside of yourself to see the forest  
because there are too many trees within.

just my momentary madness,
Bekah

On Jan 30, 2008, at 9:28 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:

> Pynchon is so, so, so.................cleverly hard  
> to ...................understand sometimes.
>
> Obvious premise: every word matters (somehow) or he would not have  
> used it/them.
>
> So, "Cyprian Latewoeed's return to Vienna was accompanied either in  
> or outside
> of his head by the Adagio, etc........(whcih MB has nicely educated  
> us--me, at least--on)
>
> But my question is:
>
> What means "either in or outside of his head"..?
> Where else can C. hear it?.........
> So, he is hearing it internally---and it isn't playing in the real  
> world?
> Or it IS playing in the real  
> world..........................................
>
> My first attempt to gloss is to suggest:.................Cyprian's  
> mind is now one with the
> world of spying and surveillance.....................there's no  
> difference......................
>
> And, somehow to me it is like "masking open skies" previously  
> written.......................
> What is real and what is in the mind and mind's eye.....are now  
> One.....................
>
> Not true in most of History...
>
> ??????????????????????
>
> Please comment.
>
> Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.

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