GR translation: winter and elastic light

[Mark Kohut]

And to supplement David's riff, haven't we ever seen 
shafts of light thru narrow windows that focus partially
as if the shafts were parts of the whole light from outside,
changing bits of funneled light, blocked by stuff inside and
spilling over? 
'A certain slant of light"---ED

One of the usual meanings of elastic:
4. Capable of adapting to change or a variety of circumstances.

By the way, does anyone but me think the phrase "enormous room" is
another buried allusion----to Cummings' anti-war novel...........

or just the normal way to write his obs? 


----- Original Message -----
From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
To: Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
Cc: Pynchon Mailing List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 7, 2011 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: GR translation: winter and elastic light

This and the other previous passage are part of one of Pynchon's most
poetic writings ever, and as such they purposely evade distinct
meaning.  No one can tell you "this means (whatever)" because the
meaning is supposed to be "elastic."  These sections seem to be the
delirious half-dream experiences of one of the shell-shock
soldier/patients being transported to the White Visitation.
Disorientation and helpless paranoia shade these experiences.

That said, "elastic light" seems related to the first two sentences
(and the ensuing gradual "revealings"):  "But it is already light. How
long has it been light?"

The emergence of the light is almost as if it is a living creature,
slowly revealing the contents of the room.

David Morris

On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 3:29 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
> P5.4-14   But it is already light. How long has it been light? All
> this while, light has come percolating in, along with the cold morning
> air flowing now across his nipples: it has begun to reveal an
> assortment of drunken wastrels, some in uniform and some not,
> clutching empty or near-empty bottles, here draped over a chair, there
> huddled into a cold fireplace, or sprawled on various divans,
> un-Hoovered rugs and chaise longues down the different levels of the
> enormous room, snoring and wheezing at many rhythms, in self-renewing
> chorus, as London light, winter and elastic light, grows between the
> faces of the mullioned windows, grows among the strata of last night’s
> smoke still hung, fading, from the waxed beams of the ceiling.
>
> What does it mean that the light is "elastic"?