Lemuria in GR (also: maritime law, SpongeBob)

[Mark Kohut]

--- On Mon, 11/16/09, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:

> From: Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>
> Subject: re: Lemuria in GR (also: maritime law, SpongeBob)
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Monday, November 16, 2009, 10:03 AM
> 
> "Paranoia for you here, Tchitcherine. Maybe Moscow's been
> tipped to your
> vendetta. If there are gathering evidence for a
> court-martial, it won't be
> Central Asia this time. I'll be Last Secretary to the
> embassy in Atlantis.
> You can negotiate narcotics arrests for all the drowned
> Russian sailors,
> expedit your own father's visas to far Lemuria, to the
> sun-resorts of
> Sargasso, where the bones come up to lie and bleach and
> mock the passing
> ships."
> 
> Thomas Pynchon: Gravity's Rainbow (p. 564).
> 
> Now, 'a court-martial', 'the embassy in Atlantis', 'your
> own father's visas
> to far Lemuria', a-and bones coming up to 'mock the passing
> ships'. Sounds to
> me as if "maritime law" bzw. the Law of the Sea is not by
> accident a side-theme
> in Pynchon's last one. Is there a licensed law-person in
> the house?
> 
I have asked a couple lawyers....Meanwhile as a "lost' continent it is very thematically Pynchonian and came to prominence with Ms. Blavatsky, another P-cited person: 

[edit] Madame Blavatsky's Lemuria
Lemuria entered the lexicon of the Occult through the works of Madame Helena Blavatsky, who claimed in the 1880s to have been shown an ancient, pre-Atlantean Book of Dzyan by the Mahatmas. According to L. Sprague de Camp, Blavatsky was influenced by other writers on the theme of Lost Continents, notably Ignatius L. Donnelly, American cult leader Thomas Lake Harris and the French writer Louis Jacolliot.

Within Blavatsky's complex cosmology, which includes seven "Root Races", Lemuria was occupied by the "Third Root Race", described as about seven foot tall, sexually hermaphroditic, egg-laying, mentally undeveloped and spiritually more pure than the following "Root Races". Before the coming of the Lemurians, the second "Root Race" is said to have dwelled in Hyperborea. After the subsequent creation of mammals, Mme Blavatsky revealed to her readers, some Lemurians turned to bestiality. The gods, aghast at the behavior of these "mindless" men, sank Lemuria into the ocean and created a "Fourth Root Race"—endowed with intellect—on Atlantis.







> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> For Lemuria as an idea of spiritual healing see:
> http://www.lemuria-rainbow.info/lemuria.html
> 
> For nowadays kids (and some of their parents) Bikini Bottom
> IS Neo-Lemuria.
> 
> For SpongeBob in Russian see:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmjMDlOBjVw
> 
> Does anything of this make sense? Or is at least
> entertaining?
> 
> 
> KFL
> 
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>  
> >
> > Why does Pynchon [in IV] put maritime law in the
> foreground, though the story 
> > would largely work without it?
> >
> > Must be something serious. Or just some 'selective
> perception' of mine ...
> >
> > And then I though that the Diffentialdiagnose of
> 'tellucic law' vs. 'maritime law' is something
> > both, Schmitt and Pynchon seem to have an interest in;
> regarding the understanding of the complete crash
> > of European (public!) international law by, first of
> all, German, then, later on, UK/US Air-Terror
> > (vgl. "Raumwandel des Luftkrieges" [NdE, pp. 293-8]
> ... "A Screaming comes across the sky ..."),
> > I'm 100% sure about this kute korrespondence.
> >
> > "Soon a pair of greenish blobs appeared on the radar,
> moving closer with each sweep, and Sauncho got on
> > the radio. Some of the transitions sounded like a
> Gordita Beach Bar any night of the week.
> > 'Your buddies from the Justice Department,' Doc
> guessed.
> > "Plus the coast guard. Saucho looked at the schooner
> for a while through the binoculars. 'She's seen us now.
> > Pretty soon ... yup. Some smoke. She's switching over
> to diesel power. Well, that lets us out.'"
> > (Thomas Pynchon: Inherent Vice, p. 356)
> >
> > There are 'special' (overseas) ships in V, GR,
> M&D, AtD, and, now, --- in Inherent Vice.
> >
> > (Right, there's also Col49's "Godzilla II", chapter
> three, but "a 17 foot aluminium trimian" does
> > not leave its Heimatgewässer, so it's likely not
> relevant in our context).
> >
> > Enough for today, next week: How much is the title
> "Against the Day" influenced by Schmitt's concept
> > of the Christian Kat-echon (vgl. NdE, pp. 28-32)?
> >
> 
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> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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> 
> >
> > a) Wouldn't some songs of Patrick the Starfish (like
> the one Michael Leong
> > analyzes in his essay) fit quite well into Pynchon's
> anarchic novels?
> >
> > b) Why has SpongeBob --- just like Frenesi! --- so
> VERY blue eyes?
> >
> > c) If we consider Bikini Bottom as some kinda
> 'Neo-Lemuria', could one then say
> > that Lemuria is the boundary object between Inherent
> Vice and, well, SpongeBob?
> >
> > KFL
> >
> > http://bigother.com/2009/10/19/american-poetry-the-contemporary-cartoon-from-robert-pinsky-to-patrick-the-starfish/
> >
> >    
>         
>           
>