TMoP - Chapter Two - The cemetery

[Richard Ryan]

On Yelagin Island and Palace:

http://www.nevanews.com/index.php?id_article=186&section=2

There's one historical oddity mentioned that might have caught Coetzee's mind's eye:

 "During
the time of Catherine II, Yelagin Island was called “Melgunov Island”
and belonged to a Noble man by the name of Melgunov. He was famous for
his hospitality and this same hospitality would later become the main
tradition on the island. After Melgunov, the island belonged to Count
Yelagin, who built a modest house there. The island took its name from
the second owner and has never been renamed. Count Yelagin was a
mysterious personality; he was interested in occultism and many masons
visited his house, among them Count Kaliostro whose half – legendary
figure caused a storm of controversy throughout Europe."

 Not a bad place for a mythical cemetery......  



--- On Thu, 9/25/08, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: TMoP - Chapter Two - The cemetery
To: "Richard Ryan" <richardryannyc at yahoo.com>, "Bekah" <Bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
Cc: "Pynchon-L" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Date: Thursday, September 25, 2008, 11:25 AM

looks like great looking....no one mentions it......1865 Handbook at Google
Books is words from the time.


--- On Thu, 9/25/08, Bekah <Bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> From: Bekah <Bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: TMoP - Chapter Two - The cemetery
> To: "Richard Ryan" <richardryannyc at yahoo.com>
> Cc: "Pynchon-L" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Thursday, September 25, 2008, 10:03 AM
> I thought I looked and looked and could find no evidence of
> a  
> cemetery ever having been on Yelagin Island.   Anyone else?
> 
> Bekah
> 
> On Sep 24, 2008, at 7:40 PM, Richard Ryan wrote:
> 
> > "They take the little ferryboat to Yelagin
> Island, which he has not  
> > visited for years.  But for the two old women in
> black, they are  
> > the only passengers.  It is a cold, misty day.  As
> they approach, a  
> > dog, grey and emaciated, begins to lope up and down
> the jetty,  
> > whining eagerly.  The ferryman swings a boathook at
> it; it retreats  
> > to a safe distance.  Isle of dogs, he thinks: are
> there packs of  
> > them skulking among the trees, waiting for the
> mourners to leave  
> > before they begin their digging?"
> >
> > To quote (from memory) William Carlos Williams's
> introduction to  
> > HOWL: "Ladies and gentlemen, we are going through
> Hell."
> >
> > By page seven of TMoP, Coetzee has already deployed a
> set of  
> > allusions which will continue to resonate throughout
> the book: to  
> > Dante, to Rilke, and, of course, always and
> everywhere, to the  
> > historical double of the book's fictional
> protagonist, Dostoevsky.
> >
> > The visit to the Land of the Dead in the second
> chapter - invoking  
> > immediately so many classic visits to the Underworld
> (Orpheus,  
> > Odysseus, Aeneas, Leopold Bloom....), and accompanied
> by all the  
> > necessary signs (ferryman, dogs, widows) establishes a
> re-occuring  
> > pattern in the novel: the Living in search of the
> Dead.
> >
> > I'd suggest we'll find, as the novel
> progresses, that TMoP is -  
> > among other things, but perhaps pre-eminently - a
> mediation on  
> > Necromancy, on way that the survivors attempt to
> resurrect the  
> > people they've lost.
> >
> >


      
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