AtDtDA(28): Others Were Less Restrained

Mon Mar 24 16:41:05 CDT 2008

"an unprecedented harrowing of the steppe"............

  From that fascinating Corrections of GR site (of ben teague) which you sent earlier!

  V555.29-31 tract: In the second paragraph of this long entry, W has misunderstood a key term from Medieval Christian lore: "the harrowing of Hell." This was not something done to Christ; it was his raiding Hell to rescue righteous souls. The harrowing took place during the three days after the crucifixion, illustrating Paul Newman's dictum: "A fellow has to be somewhere."

  More Hell of an Inferno encodedness.............................

Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
  "Others were less restrained. Was it Tchernobyl, the star of
Revelation?" (AtD, Pt. IV, p. 797)

"Tchernobyl, the star of Revelation"

Cf. ...

"Tchernobyl, the destroying star known as Wormwood" (AtD, Pt. IV, p. 784)

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

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

Wormwood, a star that falls onto the Earth poisoning the fresh water
sources per Book of Revelation 8:10-11.

Dostoyevsky explores Tchernobyl/Wormwood, the meaning of the Book of
Revelation in The Idiot, where Wormwood is also linked to the newly
built net of railroads.

Absinthe, Neville and Nigel's favourite spirit, "comes from the
medicinal plant Artemisia absinthium, also called grand wormwood or
Absinth wormwood."

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_768-791#Page_784

The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters
became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were
made bitter.
--Rev 8:11

http://bible.cc/revelation/8-11.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormwood_(star)

According to one view, the city name comes from a combination of
chornyi (black) and byllia (grass blades or stalks); hence it
literally means black grass or black stalks. It is named after the
Ukrainian word for the plant wormwood. Wormwood, which is used in
absinthe, grows abundantly in the Chernobyl area. However, another
view states that contrary to the widely-held belief, the Russian word
for wormwood is not "Chernobyl." Stating that "chornobyl," / "black
stalks," refers to mugwort (artemisia vulgaris), not to wormwood
(artemisia absinthium). In addition, the fable that Chernobyl =
wormwood originates from a 1986 New York Times article that quoted an
unnamed "prominent Russian writer" as claiming the Ukrainian word for
wormwood was "chernobyl." This erroneous attribution took root in the
popular imagination, because it enabled associations with the famous
verse in the Apocalypse of St. John (Revelation 8:11) Folk etymologies
have appeared after the 1986 nuclear incident, which represent
attempts to link the accident to prophecies in the Book of Revelation
in the Christian New Testament....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl#Origin_of_the_name_Chernobyl

http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0803&msg=125117

"But it was not a star, it was falling, a bright angel of death." (GR,
Pt. IV, p. 760)

"An uprecedented harrowing of the steppe"

Main Entry: harÂ·row
Pronunciation: \Ëher-(Ë)Å, Ëha-(Ë)rÅ\
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Middle English harwen, from Old English hergian
Date: before 12th century
archaic : pillage, plunder

Main Entry: harrow
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English harwe; akin to Old Norse hervi harrow,
Middle Dutch harke rake
Date: 14th century
: a cultivating implement set with spikes, spring teeth, or disks and
used primarily for pulverizing and smoothing the soil

Main Entry: harrow
Function: transitive verb
Date: 14th century
1 : to cultivate with a harrow
2 : torment, vex
â harÂ·rowÂ·er \Ëher-É-wÉr, Ëha-rÉ-\ noun

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary

"of the steppe"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppe
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/steppe.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro-Asian_Steppe
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/steppe

"cavalry in untold millions"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Mongol_Empire_map_2.gif
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/mongols/conquests/conquests.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_Empire

Thought all that, of course, IS the precedent here, so ...

... but WITH that as a precedent, well ...

Harrowing, indeed ...

"German artillery of a secret design"

E.g., ...

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/extra/v-2.html
http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/r.html#rocket
http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/s.html#schwarzgerat

And see as well, e.g., ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-2_rocket
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blrocketv2.htm
http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal114/spacerace/sec200/sec210.htm

And, in general, e.g., ...

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/Secweap.htm
http://www.theotherside.co.uk/tm-heritage/background/v1v2.htm
http://greyfalcon.us/restored/AN%20INVENTORY%20OF%20NAZI%20SECRET%20WEAPONS.htm

"Or something which had not quite happened yet"

In short, an Omen. The Tunguska Event could be seen as an omen of the
destructive forces unleashed over the entire course of the 20th
Century.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_792-820#Page_797

"frames of reference"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_of_reference
http://www-istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sframes1.htm

Cf. ...

"Special Relativity" (ibid.)

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

http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0803&msg=125340

"the general war"

http://www.worldwar1.com/
http://www.firstworldwar.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/wwi/wwi.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/10/98/world_war_i/198172.stm

And see as well, e.g., ...

http://prometheus.cc.emory.edu/panels/4E/Spencer.html

"collapsed into a single event"

Cf. ...

"singularity" (ibid.)

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

http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0803&msg=125340

"Don't forget the real business of the war is buying and selling.
[...] The true war is a celbration of markets." (GR, Pt. I, p. 105)

Welcome my friends to the show that never ends ...

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