CoL49 (6) Passerine

[Dave Monroe]

   "'We're in luck. Loren Passerine, the finest auctioneer in the
West, will be crying today.'
    "'Will be what?'
    "'We say an auctioneer 'cries' a sale,' Cohen said.
    "'Your fly is open,' whispered Oedipa. She was not sure what she'd
do when the bidder revealed himself. She had only some vague idea
about causing a scene violent enough to bring the cops into it and
find out that way who the man really was. She stood in a patch of sun,
among brilliant rising and falling points of dust, trying to get a
little warm, wondering if she'd go through with it.
    "'It's time to start,' said Genghis Cohen, offering his arm. The
men inside the auction room wore black mohair and had pale, cruel
faces. They watched her come in, trying each to conceal his thoughts.
Loren Passerine, on his podium, hovered like a puppet-master, his eyes
bright, his smile practiced and relentless. He stared at her, smiling,
as if saying, I'm surprised you actually came. Oedipa sat alone,
toward the back of the room, looking at the napes of necks, trying to
guess which one was her target, her enemy, perhaps her proof. An
assistant closed the heavy door on the lobby windows and the sun. She
heard a lock snap shut; the sound echoed a moment. Passerine spread
his arms in a gesture that seemed to belong to the priesthood of some
remote culture; perhaps to a descending angel. The auctioneer cleared
his throat. Oedipa settled back, to await the crying of lot 49." (Lot
49, Ch. 6, p. 183)

http://www.nbu.bg/webs/amb/american/6/pynchon/lot6.htm
http://www.innternet.de/~peter.patti/thomaspynchon-thecryingoflot49.htm

>From J. Kerry Grant, A Companion to The Crying of Lot 49 (Athens: U of
Georgia P, 1994):

"H183.1, B137.27  'Loren Passerine'  As Watson notes, Passerine's name
refers to an order of birds, one that 'includes the passerine
ground-dove' (69), beginning the many associations with Penetcost
developed in this closing scene." (p. 139)

http://www.ugapress.org/0820332070.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=AXQHqUS_fqIC

Citing ...

Watson, Robert N.  "Who Bids for Tristero?
   The Conversion of Pynchon's Oedipa Maas."
   Southern Humanities Review 17 (Winter 1983): 59-75.

Note date of coinage/first appearabce here:

pas·ser·ine
'pa-s&-"rIn
adjective
Latin passerinus of sparrows, from passer sparrow
1776
: of or relating to the largest order (Passeriformes) of birds which
includes over half of all living birds and consists chiefly of
altricial songbirds of perching habits -- compare OSCINE
- passerine noun

1776, "the legacy America" (Lot 49, Ch. 6, p. 182)

And cf. "oscine" ...

os·cine
'ä-"sIn
adjective
New Latin Oscines, suborder name, from Latin, plural of oscin-, oscen
songbird, bird giving omens by its cry, from obs-, ob- in front of, in
the way + canere to sing -- more at OB-, CHANT
1883
: of or relating to a large suborder (Oscines) of passerine birds (as
larks, shrikes, finches, orioles, and crows) characterized by a vocal
apparatus highly specialized for singing
- oscine noun

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

Okay, now here's where I SHOULD deploy a friend's kindly gift of ...

http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-3458-9

... but I stupidly left it @ work, where  I, uh, generally post this
stuff from, so ...

So I'd intended to catch as many names as possible here, will go back
and try to do so, definitely this one, but meanwhile, some things I
can recall ...

Passerine = "Pass 'er in" ?

"The auctioneer is named "Passerine" - pertaining to passing (over)."

http://www.jstor.org/pss/302014

Ed Mendelsson, "The Sacred, the Profane, and The Crying of Lot 49" (1975)

http://edphelps.net/bookclub/Callie/Crying_of_lot_49_03.htm

Is there some sort of pun going on here as well, in French, perhaps?
L'or en pas, er, well, my French Fu is weak, old man, so someone,
please, let me know. And for the record ...

Loren = Lawrence = "Crowned with Laurels"

http://www.cutebabyname.com/loren.html
http://www.baby-names-meanings.net/meaning/loren.html
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/1739/lj-lz_names.html

"Loren Passerine, on his podium, hovered like a puppet master, his
eyes bright, his smile practiced and relentless."

Cf. ...

http://www.maxxmktg.com/fantastic8.jpg

"The men inside the auction room wore black mohair and had pale, cruel
faces." (Lot 49, Ch. 6, p. 183)

Cf.

"White faces, like diseased blooms, bobbed along in the dark" (V., Ch.
9, Sec. i, p. 244)

Ezra Pound, "In the Station of the Metro" (1913)

The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
Petals on a wet, black bough

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/pound3.html

"Passerine spread his arms in a gesture that seemed to belong to the
priesthood of some remote culture; perhaps to a descending angel."
(Lot 49, Ch. 6, p. 183)

http://www.shepherd.wvnet.edu/englweb/artworks/A20.jpg

"Watson points out that the 'descending angel' image is more closely
linked with the idea of Annunciation than with that of Pentecost: 'The
implied visitation of the Holy Ghost might refer to his descent to
impregnate Mary rather than to his descent to plant new speech in the
Disciples.  If we accept the notion that Oedipa will, to her own
shock, turn out to be the
Tristero bidder, the the possibilities are not mutually exclusive.
Oedipa's gestation of a new, Tristero self, the Annunciation of the
meaning of that pregnancy, and her Pentecostal moment of finding
unexpected foreign speech on her tongue, all culminate together when
Oedipa finds herself bidding for the Tristero' (69)." (Grant, p. 141)

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/klein/204/ANNUNCIATION.jpg