Inherent Vice, belated

[Ian Livingston]

Mark,

"The Instrument awaits him its nested Crystal Hemispheres, each tun'd
to a Note of the Scale, carefully brought hither through
reef'd-Topsail seas and likewise whelming Anxieties back at Lloyd's
regarding the inherent Vice of Glass added to the yet imperfectly
known contingencies of the voyage by Ship,--brought to shine in this
commodious Corner, beneath a portrait of some Swedish Statesman too
darken'd with Room-smoke for anyone to be sure who it is any more,--
Oxenstjerna, Gyllenstjerna, Gillenborg, who knows?-- discussions often
becoming quite spirited, though, of course, conducted in Swedish."
(M&D 272).

"...He begins to play, rotating, by way of a Treadle Arrangement, the
horizontal Stack of Glasses thro' a Trough of Water, to keep the Rims
ever wet, and then simply touching each wet rim moving by, as he would
have touch'd the Key of an Organ, to produce a queerly hoarse, ringing
Tone.  If Chimes could whisper, if Melodies could pass away, and their
Souls wander the Earth...if Ghosts danced at Ghost  Ridottoes, 'twould
require such Musick, Sentiment ever held back, ever at the Edge of
breaking forth, in Fragments, as Glass Breaks" (273).

It's Pynchon, of course, no single interpretation is exclusively
correct. I am inclined to note the ephemeral nature of nature, of the
psyche, of, yes, liberty. Always the desired, the yearned (-jerned?)
after ends in fragments of shattered recollection, never attained....
But, the armonium does, after all, reach the colonies and B.F. is
playing it here, so maybe the desired end IS attained, but is REtained
only in its fragmented form. Others, of course, will have other
readings.


On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 10:41 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I cannot find Ian Livingston's post a while back where he reminded again of the use of the phrase "inherent vice" in Mason & Dixon.......
>
> an import from England with an "inherent vice", sayeth Mason....
>
> I've not looked anything up, but it has occurred to me belatedly that
> perhaps 'freedom' is what was one of the intended meanings here? That religious freedom so many came from Emgland for, the textbooks have told us, that 'liberty' we than fought Emgland to have........
>
> when added to that "freedom' that was available, for a time, for some in the sixties, 'doing something for nothing', freely that is a theme in Inherent Vice..........
>
> we might infer the fragility of the import?
>
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-- 
"liber enim librum aperit."