V2nd chapter 9 Kalkfontein

[Robin Landseadel]

On Oct 13, 2010, at 8:03 PM, Michael Bailey wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 4:45 PM, Robin Landseadel  wrote:

> Kalk is chalk, and a chalk fountain sounds pretty arid

>> the Caucasian Chalk Circle, very clever . . .
>> Sounds about right to me, considering the locale.

> I think the Dude refers to that in one of his Magic Eye essays.
> I've not seen it and there doesn't seem to be an available video to  
> buy or rent.
> What?  Read it? (eek)

I read "The Automobile Graveyard" on account of Jesus Arrabal.

You could find more foolish ways to waste your time.

>> Though one is told early on of the inherent Sloth of Mondaugen we  
>> are also
>> made aware of his anger, another one of the seven deadly, one that  
>> makes
>> Kurt's character baggage all the heavier. Whether or not we can  
>> identify
>> with Mondaugen doesn't strike me as important as the author's  
>> ability to
>> identify with Mondaugen.

> if that isn't an imponderable...
> though no doubt you mean as evidenced in the work.

I realize that by the imagined rules of the game -- we can't talk  
about the author's personal reaction to the events pondered in the  
books because there isn't any evidence of him saying much of anything  
that you could bring to a court of law on daytime television -- that  
it's an "imponderable." But by virtue of the tiny window that the  
paper trail of Bomarc left, among other bits of personal history  
scattered hither and yon, we know that Pynchon knew early on in his  
life altogether too much about the suicidal drift of Technology.

It's an unimaginably huge subject in Pynchon.

I really doubt this theme came out of learn-ed literary inclinations,  
sounds more like O.T.T. 'n' old-fashioned Scurvhamite/Bartelby the  
Scrivener-flavored Rage Against The Machine, maybe the cry of an  
emerging Luddite of sorts.

Sounds kinda Blakean, if you ask me . . .

[Hides under chair.]

Of course, the early Romantic Era was also the Revolutionary Era. The  
Late Sixties/Early Seventies also had its Revolutionaries of sorts,  
believe the Author wrote a book or two about them.

> Not only does young Mondaugen leap out like a tongue of fire from V.
> to GR . . .

I think Terri's right about this too -- Wind, the Powers of Air, the  
suit of Swords, the suit of the mind but also of the dark night of the  
soul:

http://tinyurl.com/2f6vups

I'm sure Pynchon got a lot of inspiration from Poe in chapter nine.

>>        "I ain’t looking for nothing in anyone’s eyes"

> well I just thought it was neat that the song has a guy in a wagon
> (like Mondaugen and also Rev Gatlin and Merle)

Lovely.

I was looking at Dylan looking at annihilation with a clear gaze.

And I'm in a Dylan mood right now.

> ====================================================

> THAT’S WHAT THE GODDAMN THING IS that we fear – communication. Oh –  
> fortunately the prize has only been given to authors – unlike the  
> Academy Award which is given to a female and a male, indicating the  
> derision of the human specie – God damn it!
> -- 
> - But you can wade in the water
> and never get wet
> if you keep on doin' that rag (Grateful Dead, "Doin' That Rag")

	Got nothin' for you, I had nothin' before
	Don’t even have anything for myself anymore
	Sky full of fire, pain pourin’ down
	Nothing you can sell me, I’ll see you around