AtD, naming

[Page]

We know (most emphatically from V.) that TRP has read Ludwig Wittgenstein. We also know that LW has influenced TRP. The LW of the Tractatus thought that elementary propsitions are concatenations of names, these concatenations yield propositions about states of affairs. To have meaning, a proposition must refer to something in the world. But elementary propositions that purportedly name things, states of affairs that do not exist do not name. A common example from the Tractatus is morality and beauty. They are neither things (simple objects, or simples) nor states of affairs (concatenations of elementary propositions). Therefore, they cannot be named. Propositions about them do not refer and, so, are nonsense. 

So, to my mind, there is something very important about the distinction between what can be named and what cannot. It is the difference between what can be said and what cannot be said.

The famous last proposition of the Tractatus:

          7 What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.

There is something very important about naming or not naming, and I think there is ample evidence--explicit in V.-- that TRP got this idea from the Tractatus. Of course, he turned his own genius on LW. TRP doesn't simply steal ideas. 

Are things not named things which cannot be named for Wittgensteinian reasons? 

To give a name is to posit a relationship between a proposition and all of the facts. 




  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ian Livingston 
  To: Page ; pynchon-l at waste.org 
  Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 11:31 AM
  Subject: Re: AtD, naming


  Ah, here's that post about naming.  Genisis chapter 2, verse 19ff.


  On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 11:21 PM, Page <page at quesnelbc.com> wrote:

    Mark et. al.,

    Mark: We discussed "a word's reach should exceed its grasp, or what's a metaphor?" Metaphor involves naming in reverse. Names denote things. It is the essence of metaphor that things are not named in the ordinary way. Things are shown (and more), and things (parts of the universe) can be examples. The arrow of denotation runs backwards from world to word. But it is not a weaker relationship. Arguably a more important one.

    If OBA doesn't love a good metaphor, I don't know who does. 

    Can't find a bible. Doesn't Genesis include naming everything? Nouns.

    Page


      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: Mark Kohut 
      To: pynchon -l 
      Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 4:20 AM
      Subject: AtD, naming


                 Bekah:
                 Is there something about naming or 
                 not naming that's important? 

      I think there is in AtD...haven't figured it all out...but first, think Genesis?
      to give a name is to have a relationship with?.....

      and things not named are sometimes classic preterite places in AtD?



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