C of L49: 91 times 91

[Michael Bailey]

Mark Kohut wrote:
>
> Thoth is 91 and speaks of his grandfather, who seemed 91, when he, Thoth was a boy.
>
> Just a joke about Real Oldness?....as in that Biblical phrase, "70 X 7" Matthew 18 meaning one
> should forgive and always forgive?
>

well, taking another turning...

 (...as even Robin didn't hop on the gematria bandwagon, although OBA
and OTO were both in California in the 60s, a-and lotsa other occult
stuff occurs off'n'on in Pynchon books, not to mention Thoth is
commonly associated with Hermes and thus with Mercury, the Winged
*Messenger*, and the TWITS are devotees of golden-thighed Pythagoras,
and lots of us have feelings for certain numbers beyond any strictly
utilitarian use, and Riemann's Hypothesis is based on number theory
too (btw,  _Prime Obsession_ by John Derbyshire, a book-length
explication of the background of the Riemann Hypothesis,  apologies if
this is redundant to earlier Riemann talk, but it's really a good
book, I'm making slow progress in it...) ....I'm not a true devotee of
gematria so I won't press the point)

...I say, I say, taking another turning, he's a really old guy, and
his grandfather was another.

Possible points to be taken:
a) fly perching on his forehead - he's an artist, he draws flies -
nurse at least taking the trouble to not spray Mr Thoth directly
b) his oldness, dreaminess, possible commentary on some of the
problems associated with trying to access history, and of trying to
see things as our forebears saw them
c) the Indians his grandfather killed weren't really Indians -- is
there a reference to the Boston Tea Party here?
d) Oedipa meets him by chance, another chance meeting - she's really
kind of a go-getter in her own trippy way...

-- 
"...no matter what you did to its edges the true Pacific stayed
inviolate and integrated or assumed the ugliness at any edge into some
more general truth."