Atdtda27: You people really just believe everything you're taught, 776-778

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

Agreed.

Paul Nightingale's writing is consistent, well thought 
out and properly spell-checked. A worthwhile exegesis.

Having Paul's gloss between covers wouldn't hurt none.
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Bekah <bekker2 at mac.com>
> I'm in awe of Paul Nightingale and would love to see those his  
> incredible posts archived somewhere separate and special.   I hope he  
> (or someone) is looking into that.
> 
> Bekah
> 
> On Jun 19, 2008, at 11:11 PM, grladams at teleport.com wrote:
> 
> > I think it's perfect that one of us has become stuck in time, back  
> > in a
> > chapter of a prior pathway. I read all these posts and marvel at  
> > the detail
> > and loving care that Paul Nightengale puts into this seemingly  
> > endless read
> > he's on.
> >
> >
> >
> > Original Message:
> > -----------------
> > From: Paul Nightingale isread at btinternet.com
> > Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:24:50 +0100
> > To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> > Subject: Atdtda27: You people really just believe everything you're  
> > taught,
> > 776-778
> >
> >
> > Riverbanks replace maps to guide Kit and Prance in their search for
> > Magyakan, "everywhere, and mysterious--a heroic being with  
> > unearthly gifts",
> > a description that sees him likened to the taiga. There is a loss  
> > of the
> > overview provided by maps; so one is always here, perhaps, although  
> > what
> > follows is a form of mapping that will challenge Kit's subjectivity.
> >
> > Reference to the taiga draws attention to its spread across  
> > continents, the
> > way it ignores political (ie human) boundaries; and what follows is an
> > account of myth's similar capacity for travel. Or resistance. For  
> > Prance the
> > taiga represents darkness, aka Shamanism, "the common enemy" (777)  
> > that
> > religion, ie organised religion, must try to "eradicate". Authority  
> > and
> > resistance-as-ignorance, defined as the practices of "primitive  
> > people".
> >
> > Kit suggests that Agdy/Agdi/Ogdai is "just the name of whoever  
> > sends these
> > iron things down" etc (776), a reading alternative to Prance's  
> > emphasis on
> > "conflation" (which in turn signifies ignorance, or myths that  
> > travel, a
> > localised ignorance of the controlling overview). Cf. the earlier  
> > stories
> > surrounding the so-called Kieselguhr Kid, who might or might not be  
> > one
> > person. If indeed the Kid is Webb, succeeded by Reef and/or Frank,  
> > then this
> > is another area of Traverse life that excludes Kit.
> >
> > Kit's function here is to provoke Prance through interrogation. His
> > introspective account of the terrain has given way to a role as  
> > interviewer,
> > all of which involves mouthing the party line: "... no 'state  
> > religion' in
> > the U.S.A. ..." etc (777). This is a clash of histories,  
> > alternative big
> > pictures, Kit offering "it's guaranteed in the Constitution", Prance
> > countering with a critique ("one long religious war ..." etc) that
> > deconstructs the (localised--what Americans believe in) myth of the
> > constitution. The exchange concludes with an attempt on Kit's part  
> > to offer
> > a personal alternative: "Guess I'll have to go to Cambridge and get  
> > smart"
> > (778), recalling and replaying the trajectory he did follow in  
> > going to
> > Yale. Prance, referring to his own former self as "a religious  
> > youth" notes
> > that "[i]t might easily have taken other forms".
> >
> > One thinks of another journey undertaken by Kit, with Colfax to see  
> > Tesla;
> > returning to New York, Colfax tells Kit he could never successfully  
> > hide
> > from his father: "Sooner or later you find you're trusting people you
> > shouldn't ..." (329). What Prance here calls "these  
> > conflations" (776) is
> > similar to the operation of the Twin Vibes. According to Prance,  
> > people
> > believe whatever shamans tell them: "it's like Americans, only  
> > different"
> > (777). At the end of the section/chapter Kit "recall[s] the purity,  
> > the
> > fierce, shining purity of Lake Baikal, and how he had felt standing  
> > in the
> > wind" (778). Repetition in this sentence emphasises the impact the  
> > scene had
> > on him as the chapter opened (768). A pristine beauty was  
> > accompanied there
> > by a "certainty" that has been succeeded, or replaced, in the  
> > narrative by a
> > "bickering numbness of spirit" (778). At the end of the chapter he  
> > recalls
> > Hassan, whose inscrutable 'otherness' proved less confrontational than
> > Prance's mockery.
> >
> >
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>