CoL 49 (3) The Torture Never Stops [PC 49/580

[Michael Bailey]

Great stuff, Robin. thanks!
reading the story of Bruno again（ｆｉｒｓｔ　ｅｎｃｏｕｎｔｅｒｅｄ　ｉｎ　Ｊｏｙｃｅ，　ｔｈｅｎ　ｉｎ
Ｊｏｈｎ　Ｃｒｏｗｌｅｙ）　ｗｈｙ　ｄｉｄｎ’ｔ　ｈｅ　ｊｕｓｔ　ｒｅｐｅｎｔ　ａｎｄ　ｔｈｅｎ　ｒｅｃａｎｔ　ｈｉｓ
ｒｅｐｅｎｔａｎｃｅ？　　”Ｓｏ　ｈｕｎｇ　ｕｐ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｗｏｒｄｓ，　ｗｏｒｄｓ，”　ａｓ　Ｄｒｉｂｌｅｔｔｅ　ｓａｉｄ．

ｐａｓｓｉｎｇ　ｔｈｏｕｇｈｔ　−
ｗｈｅｎ　Ｏｅｄｉｐａ　ｌｏｏｋｓ　ａｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｓｔａｍｐ　ｃａｔａｌｏｇｕｅ，　ｓｈｏｕｌｄ　ｗｅ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ｏｆ　ｔｈａｔ　ｓｏｎｇ
ｆｒｏｍ　Ｄｏｎ　Ｇｉｏｖａｎｎｉ　ｔｈａｔ　ｗａｓ　ｍｅｎｔｉｏｎｅｄ　ｉｎ　ＧＲ？



On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 1:11 PM, Robin Landseadel
<robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwhtL0LNoQw
>
> I find it rather amazing than during this leg of our journey through the
> realm of the Tristero―in particular the "Road Runner Cartoon in Blank Verse"
> that is "The Courier's Tragedy"― we have yet to mention current news
> concerning torture as regards "The Courier's Tragedy" in The Crying of Lot
> 49." Seeing as this issue overlaps with the CIA―always a popular topic in
> Pynchonland―this is as good a time as any to point out the litany of
> "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" on display in Pynchon's fabulous parody
> of Jacobean Revenge Tragedy.
>
>        The Courier's Tragedy was being put on by a San Narciso
>        group known as the Tank Players, the Tank being a small arena
>        theatre located out between a traffic analysis firm and a wildcat
>        transistor outfit that hadn't been there last year and wouldn't be
>        this coming but meanwhile was underselling even the
>        Japanese and hauling in loot by the steamshovelful.
>
> While I know this is highly unlikely as a connection, can't help but notice
> that Rocketdyne [in Canoga Park] is near Agoura CA, the primary site for the
> first set of Renaissance Faires. During that onesponatime, the Faire was the
> site of some the first performances of the Firesign Theater and their first
> major production was a parody of Shakespeare: "Anything You Want To,"
> portions of which appeared on two of their records. Connecting the Ren Faire
> to CoL49 is one of those stretches that might be classified under "May I
> Project a world?"  On the other hand, the Firesign Theater mode of humor
> seems to be near at hand in Pynchon's California tales. Both enterprises
> often have overlapping paths.
>
> But I digress. Note that the C.I.A. is invoked directly in the context of
> the Che-flavored Jesus Arrabal. In the Courier's Tragedy a sixteenth-century
> play encrypts a reference to an alternate history, seemingly a path out for
> Oedipa's entrapment in her tower. Seeing as how "enhanced interrogation
> techniques" have long been a hallmark of CIA activities, seeing how this
> theatrical gore-fest is littered with those sorts of scenes, here goes:
>
>        . . . poisoning the feet on an image of Saint Narcissus, Bishop of
>        Jerusalem, in the court chapel, which feet the Duke was in the
>        habit of kissing every Sunday at Mass. This enables the evil
>        illegitimate son, Pasquale, to take over as regent for his half-
>        brother Niccolo, the rightful heir and good guy of the play, till he
>        comes of age. . .
>
> Saint Narcissus = San Narcisco
>
>        . . .This he presently confesses to Domenico, though only after
>        having enticed that informer into foolishly bending over and
>        putting his head into a curious black box, on the pretext of
>        showing him a pornographic diorama. A steel vise promptly
>        clamps onto the faithless Domenico's head and the box muffles
>        his cries for help. Ercole binds his hands and feet with scarlet
>        silk cords, lets him know who it is he's run afoul of, reaches into
>        the box with a pair of pincers, tears out Domenico's tongue,
>        stabs him a couple times, pours into the box a beaker of aqua
>        regia, enumerates a list of other goodies, including castration,
>        that Domenico will undergo before he's allowed to die, all amid
>        screams, tongueless attempts to pray, agonized struggles from
>        the victim. With the tongue impaled on his rapier Ercole runs to
>        a burning torch set in the wall, sets the tongue aflame and
>        waving it around like a madman concludes the act by
>        screaming,
>
>        Thy pitiless unmanning is most meet,
>
>        Thinks Ercole the zany Paraclete.
>
>        Descended this malign, Unholy Ghost,
>
>        Let us begin thy frightful Pentecost. . .
>
> I've pointed out how this particular "un-manning" echos the unfortunate
> demise of Giordano Bruno:
>
>        Giordano Bruno spent the next eight years in chains in the
>        Castel Sant’Angelo, where he was routinely tortured and
>        interrogated until his trial. Despite this, he remained
>        unrepentant, stating to his Catholic Church judge, Jesuit
>        Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, "I neither ought to recant, nor will I."
>        Even a death sentence handed down by the Catholic Church
>        did not change his attitude as he defiantly told his accusers, "In
>        pronouncing my sentence, your fear is greater than mine in
>        hearing it."
>
>        Immediately after the death sentence was handed down,
>        Giordano Bruno’s jaw was clamped shut with an iron gag, his
>        tongue was pierced with an iron spike and another iron spike
>        was driven into his palate. On February 19, 1600, he was driven
>        through the streets of Rome, stripped of his clothes and burned
>        at the stake.
>
> http://space.about.com/cs/astronomyhistory/a/giordanobruno.htm
>
> For what it's worth, Bruno was a Dominican monk and his torching is quite
> famous and was made something of a cause by the Unitarians. I suspect this
> awful mode of literally silencing Bruno is based on a fear of the monk
> invoking a demon. He ran in the same hermetic circles as John Dee:
>
> http://www.esotericarchives.com/esoteric.htm
>
>        It is often maintained that Bruno was executed because of his
>        Copernicanism and his belief in the infinity of inhabited worlds
>        declared a heretic because his file is missing from the records.
>        Scientists such as Galileo and Johannes Kepler were not
>        sympathetic to Bruno in their writings.
>
> http://galileo.rice.edu/chr/bruno.html
>
>        Despite the false note of concern about Bruno's physical well-
>        being, the Inquisition's verdict was a death sentence. Bruno
>        was defiant to the end. Gaspar Schopp of Brelau, a recent
>        convert to Catholicism and a witness to the sentencing,
>        reported that Bruno exclaimed on hearing the sentence:
>        "Perchance you who pronounce my sentence are in greater
>        fear than I who receive it."
>
> http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/feb2000/brun-f16.shtml
>
>        Meanwhile, back in the torture room . . .
>
> . . . there's plenty more scenes of gore.
>
> Again, take note of the over-the-top humor of this sequence in the context
> of our current culture, engulfed as it is in the issue of torture:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/o4g4b9
>



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