Grasping for V. Group Read; apochier

[Joseph Tracy]

 From Wikipedia on Divine Comedy

Inevitably, given its setting, the Paradiso discusses astronomy  
extensively, but of course in the Ptolemaic sense. The Paradiso also  
discusses the importance of the experimental method in science, with  
a detailed example in lines 94–105 of Canto II:

"Yet an experiment, were you to try it,
could free you from your cavil and the source
of your arts' course springs from experiment.

Taking three mirrors, place a pair of them
at equal distance from you; set the third
midway between those two, but farther back.

Then, turning toward them, at your back have placed
a light that kindles those three mirrors and
returns to you, reflected by them all.

Although the image in the farthest glass
will be of lesser size, there you will see
that it must match the brightness of the rest."[34]

On Jun 12, 2010, at 12:22 PM, Mark Kohut wrote:

> Yea......why these words?
>
> I think splitting the sun means using a mirror to refract its light  
> as in this:
> Split Light Into A Spectrum Experiment - 12:06pm
> Split Light Into A Spectrum. In this experiment we will split light  
> into a spectrum. ... Hold the mirror under water, facing towards  
> the sun. ...
>
> BUT, is this true anyone with OED access?  Apochier is not in the  
> OED, writes someone.....then
> Why TF did Pynchon use it? Why is not his use IN THE OED? (He has  
> seven other first uses....because
>
> no one ever used it again?.......................and for TRP that  
> yo-yo hand IS, as MB writes equal to the hand of God OR
> the hand that started the clockwork universe????
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
> To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Sat, June 12, 2010 10:29:15 AM
> Subject: Re: Grasping for V. Group Read; apochier
>
> Mark Kohut wrote:
>> My way of hosting, just fyi: I will risk some reading(s)....Call  
>> me out; call me irresponsible; engage, argue with me; call me  
>> occasionally right.?
>>
>
> so far so good!  and thanks for taking it on!
>
>> The first V shape is actually the title of Chapter 1. With the V- 
>> shape ending where the apochier is: point furthest away from the  
>> yo-yo hand.
>>
>
>> "If you look from the side of at a planet swinging around in its  
>> orbit, split the sun with a mirror and imagine a string, it all  
>> looks like a yo-yo. The point furthest from the sun is called  
>> aphelion. The point furthest away from the yo-yo hand is called,  
>> by analogy, apocheir."
>
> this has always puzzled me: split the sun with a mirror?
> trying to visualize a big-ass mirror (a big ass-mirror...) through the
> middle of the sun
>
> are we talking about a plane, in which the half-sun is embedded at  
> a point,
> so that one can talk about an apo-whatever from the plane?
>
> because otherwise a planetary orbit's about the same distance from the
> sun at least in terms of not being very close at any point, whereas  
> a yo-yo
> spins right up to the hand...
>
> My inclination has always been not to unpack that imagery, but to  
> enjoy
> the "apocheir" notion, and also to see this as the first indication  
> of many,
> of an implicit sense of there being a Higher Power guiding our ways  
> and means,
> in the Pynchon body of work...the guiding hand (which becomes the  
> graphic
> "hand with extended Finger" in GR)
>
> and also an imitation of scientific lingo for artistic purpose
>
> and also sort of sets the stage for a
> "system-of-describing-the-action-as-if-it-were-movement-
> in-a-physical-continuum" which includes the geometric V-images Mark's
> describing, but
> also the sense of a person approaching or heading away from God,
> truth, the controller
> of our destiny, at the behest of external powers...
> by which my point isn't so much the externality of the powers,
> although that's an interesting notion (obviously there's no free will
> for novelistic characters, how are we different, and so forth)
> but the individual experience of closeness to or distance from God,
> truth, others, true love, etc
> which is being portrayed - and how
>
> but if everybody, or anybody, else can actually visualize this  
> splitting the sun
> with a mirror thing, please reveal a detail or two...
>
>>
>> Two reflections: 1) Another of P's novels that begins with an  
>> allusion against the sky, maybe? If you do not think this ob  
>> works, wait until I do the first line!
>
> sounds interesting
>
>> 2) In one of his letters--to Hollander, I believe---P said  
>> something like: Hey, my meaning is all there on the page. ( We  
>> know this is true and not true at once
>> overall      but taking this on its face, I want to ask how much   
>> V. as end of yo-yo hand resonates as meaning?.....the analogy  
>> comes up again in V..... V juts at straight angles from an  
>> apocheir.......sharp angles, we come to know from GR and ATD, at  
>> least,  aren't positive in TRP's vision. Operative here?
>
> Operative p38 reporting in...all is relatively well, at least for  
> the moment...
>
>
>
> -- 
> Yippy dippy dippy,
> Flippy zippy zippy,
> Smippy gdippy gdippy, too!
> - Thomas Pynchon ("'Zo Meatman's Gone AWOL")
>
>
>