AtDtDA(28): All the Signs are Here

[Dave Monroe]

   "'Not that.  I believe ... all the signs are here, you must have
seen them ... these high peaks surrounding us, the Tuvan script that
resembles Tibetan characters ...'" (AtD, Pt. IV, p. 786)


"all the signs are here"

...


"the Tuvan script that resembles Tibetan characters"

E.g., ...

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/images/e/ec/ATD_stamp.gif
http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Image:ATD_stamp.gif
http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_cover_analysis#The_Red_Seal

Thank you, Jordan ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0611&msg=111989
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0611&msg=111994
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0611&msg=112004

... and Robin ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0701&msg=114291
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0701&msg=114299
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0701&msg=114291

... and Ya Sam ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0701&msg=114318
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0701&msg=114319
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0701&msg=114236

Please let me know who/what I've missed here ...


"Old Uyghur or any sort of Turkic language"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Turkic
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/uyghur.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkic_language

E.g., ...

N.T.A.

339; New Turkic Alphabet; written language imposed on Central Asia by
Russians; 341; Cyrillic NTA, 354; plenary session, 355; "first Central
Asian fuck you signs," 355; See also naming;
Routinization/Rationalization of Charisma

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/n.html#nta
http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=N#nta

"He had come to give the tribesmen out here, this far out, an
alphabet: it was purely speech, gesture, touch among them, not even an
Arabic script to replace. [...] The stiff Latin symbols were almost as
strange to the Russian cadre -- tall Galina in her cast-off Army
trousers and gray Cossack shirts . . . marcelled and soft-faced Luba,
her dear friend . . . Vaslav Tchitcherine, the political eye . . . all
agents -- though none thought of it this way -- representing the NTA
(New Turkic Alphabet) in uncommonly alien country...." (GR, Pt. II, p.
338ff.)

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001498.html


"the Wheel of Life"

The Bhavacakra (Sanskrit; Devanagari: भवचक्र; Pali: bhavacakka) or
Wheel of Becoming (Tibetan srid pa'i 'khor lo) is a complex symbolic
representation of saṃsāra in the form of a circle (Sanskrit: mandala;
Tibetan: 'khor.lo), used primarily in Tibetan Buddhism. Saṃsāra is the
continuous cycle of birth, life, and death from which one liberates
oneself through enlightenment.

In the Buddhist depiction, different karmic actions contribute to
one's metaphorical existence in different realms, or rather, different
actions contribute to one's characteristics similarity to those of the
realms. Leading from the human realm to the outside of the wheel
depicts the Buddhist path.

The Bhavacakra is sometimes displayed with five sections, but the more
recent and more common form has six sections....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhavacakra

Cf. ...

mandala

"the ancient sun-wheel from which. . .the swastika was broken" 100;
"full mandalas came to bloom" 152; Herero villages built like
mandalas, 321; mandala-like Schwarzkommando insignia, illustrated,
361; KEZVH, 446; Schwarzkommando, 560; four fins of the Rocket, 563;
"other fourfold expressions" 624; "fatal mandala" 691; discussed at
Gross Suckling Conference, 706-07; "the cross the man has made on his
own circle of earth" 719; Raketen-Stadt: "built in mandalic form like
a Herero village" 725

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/m.html
http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=M


"A Tibetan Buddhist enclave in the middle of a prevailing Islamism.
What does that suggest to you?"

Let me know ...


"There may not be a 'mission' anymore"

Cf. ...

"... there ought to be a punchline to it, but there isn't.  The plan
went wrong.  He is being broken down instead, and scattered." (GR, Pt.
IV, p. 738)

Then ...

   "'We're on our own,' Kit said.
   "'And separately, too, I fear.'" (AtD, Pt. IV, p. 787)


Kashgar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashgar

Kashgar is a important hub on the Old Silk Road,a vibrant Islamic
centre within Chinese territory. It is the largest oasis city in
Chinese Central Asia and 90 per cent of its population of over
3,000,000 are Uygur.... Kashgar's importance derives from its
strategic position at the foot of the Pamir Mountains, commanding
access to the high glacial passes of the Silk Road routes into Central
Asia, India and Persia. The weary trade caravans plodding west on the
northern and southern routes met up at Kashgar, the desert hazards and
demons finally behind them. Merchants bound for China thawed out after
descending to Kashgar from the peaks of the Pamirs or the Karakorams,
and exchanged their stolid yaks and exhausted pack horses for camels
to convey their merchandise into Inner province of China.

http://www.china-holiday.com/china/Kashgar.htm


"the wind was blowing across his moving lips"

Cf. ...

An aeolian harp (or æolian harp or wind harp) is a musical instrument
that is "played" by the wind. It is named for Aeolus, the ancient
Greek god of the wind....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_harp