Lemuria in GR (also: maritime law, SpongeBob)

[rich]

On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 10:03 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen
<lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>
> "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 think it's Pynchon's take on that clever Stalin and friends way of
justice--how negotiate/arrest someone who's dead? sure we'll give yr
dad a visa fast only to a place that doesn't exist

rich