Help, please

[Michael Bailey]

Thanks, Natalia, for raising the question.

Making the eyes the agent of plowing opens a rich field of associations*,
although to nail it down (for the complete satisfaction of my pedantic nature)
would require "they"
instead of "he"
as in "The eyes closed.  ...what rich soils had they [the eyes] turned"
--of course, that would open up antecedency problems since another "they"
was introduced in between ("the bulk [majority] of this city's waking
[population]".)

The image that I still can't parse is
"candlestubs lit to rotate in the air over him"
- is he lying on the bed with what some of my companions in teenage drinking
used to call "the spins"?

Also, is this the first reference in Pynchon to the capacity of beds to
be repositories of the dreams and emotions of those who lie in them?
I'm hearkening forward to AtD where Hunter Penhallow voices some thoughts
on the matter.

Last on my list of thoughts that might be relevant, the "delirium"
reference in AtD
is on page 41.


* eyes as agents of plowing:
a) diligent reading is sometimes referred to as "plowing through" a book
b) the eyes are windows of the soul (so, are agents of the Self, so it's ok
      to refer to "he" in the sentence and still keep thinking of the
eyes, since
     they are _his_ eyes)
c) Goethe and others conceive of vision not just as passive reception of light,
     but postulate rays or some other emission - going out from the eyes -
     that interacts with ambient light to create vision
d) The "bulk" of the city - only tangentially, I think, is bulk meant
here in a volumetric sense,
     so, ie, the majority of the city's population utilize their
vision to look at familiar
     things and reinforce consensus reality
e) The protrusion of eyeballs lifting eyelids is a really inspiring use of the
     "cam" concept - and also makes me think of Popeye the Sailor (I
bring him into
     the mix whenever I can)
f) ok, so with reference to the "plowing" etymology of delirium,
     Oedipa goes on the wonder "what rich soils" (echo of "what rough beast"?)
     which follows immediately: ie, plow -> soil
g) but, "what concentric planets?" - huh? (or, rudely, wtf?)
     what kind of farmer turns up planets in his acreage?
     1) planetary gears?  (more mechanical allusions?)
     2) archaelogical folklore, "farmer plowing his field turns up a
lost civilization",
                 or, "traces of a vanished world" - which of course
links the Tristero
                 to conspiracies, cults, mystery religions back thru time
                 (like Ishmael Reed wrote: "The history of the world
is the history
                  of the warfare between secret societies")
     3) still, what kinda synecdoche or metonymy is it - planet-> earth-> soil?


So, I'm still getting cammed out by
            a) the rotating candlestubs
            b) the concentric planets