CoL49 (6) Passerine

[David Payne]

On Sun, 12 Jul 2009 (13:20:48 -0500), Dave Monroe (against.the.dave at gmail.com) wrote:

> "'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.

When protesting a group that's marching, it's common to yell out "Your fly is open!" so as to make 'em look down, embarrass them. I'm sure you did it in Junior High if not at the RNC.

Anyhow, was Oed suggesting that Cohen's fly was open, or was this line her speaking to herself, prepping for disrupting the auction?

Also -- we're right at the end of the novel and Dave Monroe's hosting, so let me say, thank you, Dave, for excellent hosting ...

And in hopes of not leading others to ignore the rest of this here particular excelling post ...

----------------------------------------
> From: against.the.dave at gmail.com
> Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 (13:20:48 -0500)
> Subject: CoL49 (6) Passerine
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>
> "'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
>
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