ATDTDA: (35) Part II - a very brief comment

[Bekah]

  I thought the Angels toward the end of this section were pretty  
cool.  - Angel of Life or Angel of Death or Angel of Independence or  
Angel of what?  Dualities again.  Something about the futility of  
trying to deal in them alone?  Are we capable?

The Mexican revolution was adequately done but imo,  there was a lot  
of background missing for US readers.   You had to read pretty  
carefully to catch the railroad bombings and anarchist sections - and  
Lord knows I didn't get into them.  The glowing beetles as human  
souls connected by something "representing"  all humanity were  
exquisite.  There were  a lot of funny parts in this section - some  
shades of Carlos Castaneda again - but  Mexican magic always seems to  
come down to either him or Garcia.

Bekah

On Jul 5, 2008, at 6:32 PM, Bekah wrote:

> (My sender addie is messing up - sorry.)
>
> And the overview of (35) Part II - pgs 982-999  (again,  from the  
> Pynchon Wiki unless noted with ***s.
>
> *********************************************
> Page 982
>
> ***  And we now move to Frank in Mexico for the continuing  
> Revolution (about 2 years into a 20 - year civil war)  against the  
> Diaz government and then against the Madero government and  
> then ...  (see below).   This is about 1911/12.
>
> http://ic.ucsc.edu/~ksgruesz/ltel190f/PynchonGrid.htm
>
> *** More on the revolution:
>
> http://cnparm.home.texas.net/Nat/Mx/Mx00.htm
>
> map:  http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/mexico_1910.htm
>
> (nutshell version):   http://www.emersonkent.com/ 
> wars_and_battles_in_history/mexican_revolution.htm
>
> http://tinyurl.com/5rfocf    (scroll down)
>
> ****!!  with good photos including one entitled,  "Favorite pastime  
> of Mexican revolutionaries, blowing up trains."
>
>
>
>
> ***  So first we have the old corrupt Diaz regime,  then the Madero  
> government from 1911 to 1913 when  Lascuráin Paredes took over the  
> presidency (for Huerta) and after a few days  Huerta took office  
> himself for a few years.  Huerta was ousted  by  Venustiano  
> Carranza Garza who, except for a  10 week interruption by Eulalio  
> Gutiérrez Ortiz  (1914-15),   held the high office until 1920.
> Magonistas
>
> Mexican anarchists, followers of brothers Enrique and Ricardo  
> Flores Magón (1874-1922). During the "Magonista" Revolt of 1911, a  
> short-lived revolutionary commune was set-up in Baja California. In  
> present Mexico, the Flores Magon brothers are considered left wing  
> political icons nearly as notable as Emiliano Zapata, and numerous  
> streets, towns and neighborhoods are named for them.
>
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Flores_Magón  (very  
> interesting guy - died at Leavenworth)
>
> *********************************************
>
> Page 983
> ***  Morelos
> A state in southern Mexico.  Morelos has always had great  
> revolutionary activity, and numerous guerrillas have made their  
> homes and struggled for justice in the region. Most notably,  
> Anenecuilco in Morelos[clarify] was the home town of Emiliano  
> Zapata; the state was the center of Zapata's Mexican Revolution  
> campaign, and a small city in the Morelos is named after him.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morelos
>
> *** nice map:   http://www.emersonkent.com/map_archive/ 
> morelos_mexico_map_1910.htm
>
> ***  More names from the Orozquista - the term for those who  
> followed Pascual Orozco and son in fighting first for the Madero  
> against Diaz and then against Madero (with cause)   side of the  
> revolution(s):
>
> http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/OO/for8.html
>
> Emiliano Zapata - from Morelos, Mexico,  begun a serious  
> insurrection against the (Madero) government..."
>
> Pascual Orozco  1882-1915, importer of armaments from U.S.,  
> maderista, revolted against Madero government in 1912.
>
> Pascual Orozco,Jr. (1882-1915) was a Mexican revolutionary hero and  
> leader - first against Diaz and then against Madero.  Worked with  
> Pancho  Villa - defeated by Huerta.)
>
> José Inés Salazar was longtime colleague of Pascual Orozco and  
> later one of the leading Orozquista generals.
>
> Braulio Hernández A prominent Maderista but later became a radical  
> Orozquista.
>
> Photos of Revolution people:  http://www.texancultures.utsa.edu/ 
> library/bakerPhotos.htm        (includes Villa, Orozco and  
> Hernandez in different photos)
>
> Pancho Villa  a prominent leader of the Revolution - joined  
> Orozuistas after Madero's murder
>
> José Gonzáles Salas    Maderista general in command against Orozco
>
> the country around Jiménez . . .
> The region around Jiménez, a mining center in Chihuahua 130 miles  
> south of Chihuahua City, is known for large number of meteorites,  
> some of them discovered by the Spaniards in 16th and 17th  
> centuries, and now exhibited in Palacio de Mineria (Minery Palace)  
> in Mexico city.
>
> http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=J
>
> "In 1852, two meteorites were found about 16 miles from Jimenez  
> (formerly Huejuquilla), Chihuahua, Mexico. The two masses were  
> removed in 1891 to the School of Mines, Mexico City."   With a  
> weight of 14.114 tons, Chupaderos I is ranked as the 10th largest  
> meteorite in the world; and Chupaderos II with a weight of 6.767  
> tons ranked 14th. Photos of Chupaderos I and Chupaderos II.
>
> ***   Chupaderos II meteorite:   http://www.jensenmeteorites.com/ 
> Chupaderos/Chupad(II)-1.jpg
>
> ***  Chupaderos I meteorite:    http://www.jensenmeteorites.com/ 
> Chupaderos/Chupad(1)-3.jpg
>
>
>
> "... the Bolsón de Mapimí"
>
> A small desert area east of Jiménez,
>
> *********************************************
>
> Page 984
> ***   Frank is looking around in the Bolsón de Mapimí when he finds  
> a little meteorite (?) which seems to speak to him
> "máquina loca"
> Spanish: crazy machine. The translation of máquina is often tuned  
> to the context: here, "locomotive."
>
> ***  History of trains in Mexico:   http://www.2020site.org/ 
> mexicanrailway/central.html
>
> ***  photo of derailment or bombing/?: http://www.emersonkent.com/ 
> wars_and_battles_in_history/mexican_revolution.htm
>
> ***  Oh shades of the Kieselguhr Kid.
>
> "a sus órdenes"
>
> Spanish: (ready) for your orders. In English one would say, "at  
> your service."
>
> "One prong of the government attack . . . between Corralitos and  
> Rellano . . ."
> The Battle of Rellano.   The Battle of Rellano was the high-water  
> mark of the Orozquista military campaign.
>
> Andale, muchachos
>
> Spanish: let's go, boys.
>
> *********************************************
>
> Page 985
> Parral
> Parral is where Pancho Villa was assassinated on July 20, 1923.  
> Apparently someone remembered the sacking, dynamiting, looting, and  
> killing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parral%2C_Chihuahua
>
> El Espinero = Tarahumara duende - is this the place Frank was  
> guided to - for a railroad battle?
>
> *********************************************
>
> Page 986
> *** Victoriano Huerta -  fought for Madero until he usurped power  
> himself.  Cf page 376 (Frank and Ewball run into Huerta and his men  
> prior to all this)
>
> Tampico
>
> cf. page 637, where (and when) Frank first meets Günther.
>
> Orizaba product
> One of the leading industries of Orizaba is the Cervecería  
> Moctezuma brewery which was established in 1896.
>
> Chiapas
> cf. page 637
>
> ** Situation not hopeful - Huerta has guns,  Orozco no.
>
> The "Maquina loca tactic"  will eventually fail  -  (this was the  
> tactic of hiding a hijacked locomotive behind enemy lines and and  
> packing it with explosives.  Then sending it full throttle into the  
> cars in front of it.
>
> Frank gets to Mexico City where he meets up with
>
>  Günther von Quassel
>
> a  "wealthy coffee scion" and Yashmeen's old boyfriend; inhabits  
> "his own idiomatic 'frame of reference'" 599; aka "El Atildado" in  
> Mexico, with Frank Traverse, 637; in Mexico City, 986;
>
>  "quasseln" is a German verb, meaning roughly "to jabber"
>
> *********************************************
>
> Page 987
>
> Gunther and Frank catch up on stuff:
>
> Oaxaca   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oaxaca
>
> cafetal
> Spanish: coffee plantation.
>
> The work is being mechanized and there is really no insurgency in  
> Oaxaca - only family disputes and banditry.
>
> jefe politico
> Spanish: political boss.
>
> Juchitán
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juchitán_de_Zaragoza
>
> Benito Juárez Maza - son of Benito Juarez president of Mexico  
> (1858-1872)  Governor of Oaxaca from 1911 until his death the next  
> year.
>
> *********************************************
> Page 988
>
> chegomista
> Follower of Che Gómez,mayor of Juichitan, follower of Madero until  
> he was double crossed.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/5om2f
>
> "El Reparador"
> Spanish: "The Fixer." Epithet of a hundred operators in crime  
> literature. Or, as the text eventually suggests, "The Repairman."
>
> Ibargüengoitia
> Speculation on this surname: Jorge Ibargüengoitia was a novelist  
> and playwright who wrote, among other things, Los Relámpagos de  
> Agosto (The Lightning of August, 1964), which uses cartoonish  
> mayhem to debunk the Mexican Revolution's heroic myths; improbably  
> it won for its author the Premio Casa de las Américas, despite or  
> because of the consternation which its flippancy caused.
>
> Ibargüengoitia is also the name of the "Genevan contact" that  
> Slothrop meets on behalf of Squalidozzi the Argentine anarchist in GR.
>
> On p. 384 Squalidozzi's shipmate Belaustegui asks why he didn't  
> deliver the message himself:
> "Why didn't you go to Geneva and try to get through to us?"
> "I didn't want to lead them to Ibargüengoitia. I sent someone else."
>
> Chapultepec Park
> Chapultepec Park is an enormous green area in the middle of Mexico  
> City covering 2,000 acres, containing three of the city's most  
> importnat museums, an amusement park, several lakes, the only  
> genuine castle in North America,, Mexico's largest zoo and the  
> residence of the President of Mexico, Los Pinos. Chapultepec Castle  
> is also known as "The Halls of Montezuma."
>
> Wie geht's, mein alter Kumpel
> German: How are you, my old workmate?
>
> *********************************************
> Page 989
>
> the new Monument to National Independence
> Mexico City's No.1 landmark. The Monumento de la Independencia,  
> situated on a roundabout at the Paseo de la Reforma (Reform Avenue)  
> in Mexico City's downtown area, was inaugurated in 1910. The  
> sculptures that surround the base represent Law, Justice, War and  
> Peace. On top of the monument is a winged and gilded angel, known  
> as Angel de la Independencia, or just El Angel. See photo of
> El Angel.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ángel
>
> When his eyes refocused, whoever had spoken had moved on and Frank  
> has, at recognizing Dally's face, gone into the same kind of  
> trance, a merger with the moment, or with the machine, that had  
> almost taken him into the collision with the Federal train on P. 
> 985. The warning words seem to be "crazy machine", "dead" and  
> "you". A warning from the Angel of Death, via another Alternate  
> Communication channel.
>
>
> a face he recognized
> Another angel modeled on Dally?  El Angel was sculpted by Enrique  
> Alciati.
>
> "máquina loca," "muerte" and "tú"
> Spanish: "crazy locomotive," "dead" and "you."
>
>
> Why the Angel of Death rather than the Angel of Light?
>  "Frank could see The Angel "in the declining sunlight..."
>
> http://www.zanzig.com/travel/mexico-photos/m005-070.htm
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ángel
>
> abrazo
> Spanish: hug.
>
> "sinvergüencistas"
> From sin vergüenza, Spanish: without shame. The -istas ending makes  
> it refer to a group of adherents.
>
> Ibargüengoitia gets Frank and Gunter out of Vera Cruz, down to  
> Frontera . . . to Villahermosa, Tuxtla Gutiérrez . . . and across  
> the Sierra to the Pacific coast where lies Gunter's plantation, on  
> the Pacific coast around Tapachula near the border with Guatemala.
>
> "Tu madre chingada puta"
> Rude, rude Spanish: Your mother's a fucking whore.
>
>
>
> *********************************************
> Page 990
>
> Machine-Age nightmare . . . the future of coffee
> Another Crazy Machine, or perhaps "Out of Control" machine (the  
> governor on the locomotive on P.985 "no longer regulated  
> anything").  Industrialization has struck again.
>
> ***  Chamula - a city in Chiapas comprised of Tzotzil Mayan Indians  
> who work (and have been worked) on coffee and sugar plantations.   
> The city is autonomous within Mexico.
>
> ***  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzotzil
>
> ***  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzotzil_people
>
> *** Today many in the Zapatista Liberation movement are Tzotzil.
>
> ***  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
> Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation
>
> Chamula is near San Cristóbal
>
> http://wild-net.com.au/mexico/html/san_cristobal.phtml
>
> Tuxtla - the capital of Chiapas
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuxtla_Gutiérrez (nice positional map  
> of Mexico)
>
> Tapachula
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapachula
>
> El Quetzal Dormido
> The Sleeping Quetzal. Quetzals are elaborately-plumed birds of the  
> genera Pharomachrus and Euptilotis, and are in the trogon family.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzal
>
> http://cloudbridge.org/avifauna.htm
>
>
>
> And Frank "had observed, or thought he had ..."    "
>
> Brujos;"  male witches
>
> Frank meets Melpómene in "El Quetzal Dormido"
>
> Melpómene is the name of the Greek muse of song and tragedy. http:// 
> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melpomene
>
> ***  see also "18 Melpomene" a large, bright asteroid located in  
> the Main Belt, discovered by John Russel Hind on June 24, 1852, and  
> named after aforementioned muse.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
> 18_Melpomene
>
>
> Palenque - a small town in Chiapas, powerful in the Mayan Era.   
> Overrun by jungle today.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palenque
>
> *********************************************
> Page 991
>
> guayuleros - wild rubber workers of the old days.   Pancho Villa´s  
> cross-border raids scared off "guayuleros" in Southwestern U.S.
>
> Melpómene tells Frank about the cucuji
> According to the text they are "giant luminous beetles." Pynchon  
> seems to have read this "Handbook for Travellers" Google Books scan  
> to Mexico, written in 1907, by Thomas Phillip Terry. This passage  
> includes descriptions of reading by their light, simultaneous  
> flashing, use by women under thin veils, and small cages containing  
> several beetles acting as torches
>
> http://tinyurl.com/6r8vec
>
> tinterillo - told Melpomene that the little cucuji were very bright
> Legal scribe. A "writer to prepare papers, collect and adduce  
> evidence in legal cases, such as was to be submitted to illiterate  
> judges of such tribunals as then existed." (From here, p 160.)
>
>
>
>
> Ahora, apágate
> Spanish: Now put yourself out, extinguish yourself.
>
> Bueno
> Good.
>
>
>
> *** And Frank has a little communication going with a beetle named  
> Pedro who lets him know that he is Frank's soul and that all the  
> little lit up beetles are the souls of all who had ever passed  
> through his life and that they all went to make a single soul.
>
> *** " 'In the same way,'  amplified Gunther, 'that our Savior could  
> inform his disciples with a straight face that bread and wine were  
> indistinguishable from his body and blood. Light, in any case,  
> among these Indians of Chiapas, occupies and analoguous position to  
> flesh among Christians.  It is living tissue. As the brain is the  
> outward and visible expression of the Mind.' "
>
> Yeah?
>
> *********************************************
> Page 992
>
> instantaneously
> In violation of Einstein's special theory of relativity.  a  
> wireless, immediate, human way of communicating.
>
> Caray . . . novio . . .
> Spanish: Good heavens . . . boyfriend . . .
>
> Mazatán
> http://www.travelpost.com/NA/Mexico/Chiapas/Mazatan/7645531
>
> Qué
> Spanish: What, as in "what the fuck?"
>
> querida
> Spanish: dear, darling.
>
> *********************************************
> Page 993
>
> ** alternate communication systems - telepathic**
>
> It is like the telephone exchange . . . the single greater organism  
> remains intact, coherent, connected.
> Actually not like the telephone exchange. On P. 708, Derrick Theign  
> worries that in case of war, telephone and telegraph will become  
> unreliable; this is his reason for creating the R.U.S.H. This  
> telepathic network, like an unfailing cell phone network, is far  
> more reliable.
>
> ** On page 993 Gunther talks about a network of Indians in  
> telepathic communication.
>
> Tenochtitlán
> Tenochtitlán was the capital of the Aztec empire, built on an  
> island in Lake Texcoco in what is now the Federal District in  
> central Mexico. At its height, it was one of the largest cities in  
> the world, with over 200,000 inhabitants. The city was destroyed in  
> 1521 by Spanish conquistadors. Mexico City was erected on top of  
> the ruin.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenochtitlan
>
> Angel of the Fourth Glorieta on Reforma
>
> Glorieta is a monument. See the angel, pg. 989.
>
> "As a gateway the arch seemed to define two different parts of the  
> city..."
>
> *** http://www.flickr.com/photos/44011434@N00/2404223525
>
> *********************************************
> Page 994
>
> He knew what it was but could not find its name in his memory
> Presumably the unknown menace from which Aztlan's inhabitants fled.  
> But suggestive both of air attack and the menace of North American  
> industrialization.
>
> ***!!!!   Air attack?   What is this?  Indeed!  the US sends  
> aeroplanes to support Huerta?  (NYTimes 5/24/1912)
>
> tezontle
> The colonists and Indian artisans employed local tezontle, a light  
> and porous volcanic rock, to create elaborate facades on buildings.
>
> tepetate
> A porous whitish-yellow rock used in building construction when cut  
> into blocks. As a construction material tepetate has played a major  
> role in the development of modern Mexico.
>
> indicative world
> Very potent phrase. The world of everyday reality, indicating the  
> deepeer reality of the visions? The indicative mood in grammar is  
> the mood of simple declarative statements, plain facts: there was  
> Melpomene, here is a chair. A mood incommensurate with Frank's trance.
>
> the Huerta coup
> Against Madero, who was shot, February 1913.
>
> Ciudadela
> http://archaeology.asu.edu/teo/intro/ciudad.htm
>
> Félix Díaz - Huerta supporter until he was duped.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Félix_Díaz
>
> Decena Trágica
> Spanish: the tragic ten days (before the assassination of President  
> Modero)
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_decena_trágica
>
> Zócalo -A zócalo is a central town square or plaza.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zocalo
>
> el palacio blanco
> Spanish: the white palace
>
> Pino Suárez - Vice President of Mexico from 1911 to 1913
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_María_Pino_Suárez
>
> *********************************************
> Page 995
>
> It was the first time he was aware of getting paid for being  
> stupid. Could there be a future in this? Sounds like another  
> Pynchonian 'in-joke'. In "Vineland", Zoyd Wheeler is getting his  
> yearly cheques for precisely that, i.e. doing something stupid.
>
> *********************************************
> Page 996
>
> ¡Epa!
> Spanish: Whoa! Soccer (fútbol) announcers interject ¡Epa! when two  
> players have a very physical coming together.
>
> Since last September the mine workers' union had been out on strike
> The Colorado "coal war" of September 1913 to April 1914; here is an  
> eye-opening account.
>
> Just a taste of what's coming a bit later in Ludlow:
>
> http://www.du.edu/anthro/ludlow/cfhist.html
>
> *********************************************
> Page 997
>
> Pagosa Springs
> South Central Colorado town in the heart of the San Juan Forest.
>
> 1914 with photos:  http://gawiz.com/HistoryoftheRanches.htm
>
> *********************************************
>
> Page 998
>
> ...over Wolf Creek Pass, into the San Luis Valley...San Luis  
> Basin...through Fort Garland...up the Sangre de Cristos over North  
> La Veta Pass...the first rooftops of Walsenburg.
> The route described would take them from the presumably UMW- 
> sympathetic mining country in the San Juans, north and east along  
> current US highway 160 (called the Navaho Trail), across the San  
> Luis Valley and Basin to North La Veta Pass, with Walsenburg and  
> the prairies and canyons of the coal country beyond to the east  
> (the only safe approach to the striking mines).
>
>
> http://tinyurl.com/65g53v
>
> The geography of this journey is as carefully described as the  
> various characters' journeys through the Balkans (the description  
> of the view of the Spanish Peaks and Culebra Range are absolutely  
> accurate), and there must be a reason, something these regions have  
> in common.
>
> The San Luis Valley and immediately adjacent areas are the furthest  
> northeastern reaches of the Spanish Empire in North America, part  
> of the Province of Nueva Mexico del Norte of New Spain, later  
> Mexico (part of which became the state of New Mexico in 1912). The  
> area around Telluride would be the northern border of Pynchon's  
> vision of Aztlan (it is in fact the northern border of the Pueblo  
> settlements). These are, therefore, like the Balkans, borders  
> between newly industrializing empires and older, tribally- 
> organized, "pre-scientific" cultures (both with indigenous mystical/ 
> spiritual traditions, with which the characters interact). Here and  
> in nearby Mexico, mechanization and industrialization of resource  
> extraction are causing heartbreaking exploitation and violence, and  
> the indigenous shamanism and mysticism and their unmediated power  
> are being destroyed by advancing industrial civilization, exactly  
> as described by Dwight Prance on P.777.
>
> Niall Ferguson(The War of the World: Twentieth Century Conflict and  
> the Descent of the West, Penguin Press, 2006) points to three  
> demonstrated conditions for becoming a conflict flashpoint: (1)  
> Multi-ethnic population (2) location at the border of a failing  
> empire (3) economic volatility (See note to P.939). Both the  
> Balkans and the American Southwest/Mexico fulfilled those conditions.
>
>
>
>
>
> *********************************************
> ** Also see:
> http://chumpsofchoice.blogspot.com/2007/10/what-i-tell-you-three- 
> times-is-true.html
>