IVIV (14): Byzantine Archways and Crystal Lusters

[rich]

a-and that whole surreal Lyle Bland scene with those apparently
sentient pinball machines who seem equally resentful--going Tilt when
loss of a round, hitting high score, hole or bar, but getting a low
score recorded

rich

On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 9:06 AM, Robin Landseadel
<robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Pynchon's anthropomorphism extends to the gaming room's—
>
>        . . . ruinous chandelier draped above the tables and cages and
>        pits, disintegrating, ghostly, huge, and, if it had feelings, likely
>        resentful—its lightbulbs long burned out and unreplaced,
>        crystal lusters falling off falling off unexpectedly into cowboy
>        hatbrims, people's drinks, and spinning roulette wheels, where
>        they bounced with a hard-edged jingling through their own
>        dramas of luck and loss.
>
> This reminds me of the opening of Gravity's Rainbow:
>
>        . . .No light anywhere. Above him lift girders old as an iron
>        queen, and glass somewhere far above that would let the light
>        of day through. But it's night. He's afraid of the way the glass will
>        fall—soon—it will be a spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace. But
>        coming down in total blackout, without one glint of light, only
>        great invisible crashing.
>
>