V2, Chap 15 (Sahha), I, p 461 - "Mene, mene tekel, upharsin"

[Joe Allonby]

How often do you run across that phrase twice in the same day from
completely unrelated sources?

Now three times in a 24 hour period.


On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 1:45 PM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
> Another odd coincidence is that John Cheever had a story of that name published in the New Yorker in 1963.
>
> http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1963/04/27/1963_04_27_038_TNY_CARDS_000272460
>
> You need a subscription to read it.
>
> Laura
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Joe Allonby <joeallonby at gmail.com>
>>Sent: Feb 8, 2011 6:33 AM
>>To: Richard Ryan <himself at richardryan.com>
>>Cc: Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>Subject: Re: V2, Chap 15 (Sahha), I, p 461 - "Mene, mene tekel, upharsin"
>>
>>Really odd coincidence. I ran across this same phrase last night in
>>reference to the fine structure constant or "alpha" in Sam Kean's "The
>>Disappearing Spoon",
>>
>>
>>
>>On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 4:55 AM, Richard Ryan <himself at richardryan.com> wrote:
>>> "On the wall was a sign:
>>>
>>>   I am heading for the Whitney.  Kisch mein tokus, Profane.
>>>   'Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin,' said Stencil.
>>>   'Ho, hum, " said Profane, preparing to sack out on the floor."
>>>
>>> The "wall" has a sign (posted by Rachel) addressed to the "Rollicking
>>> Boys" (Benny and Stencil, just returned from their 'night of
>>> burglary') indicating she is doing something civilized in response to
>>> the Boys' antics.  To which Stencil responds with the original
>>> "writing on the wall":
>>>
>>> "Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin."
>>>
>>> ...the mantic phrase from the Book of Daniel, in which these
>>> mysteriously appearing words forecast the downfall of the king,
>>> Belshazzar.  Note that Rachel self-consciously undercuts her own
>>> somewhat pompous "I am heading for the Whitney" with a Yiddish-ism,
>>> which is characteristic of her high-low mix. Note also that Stencil's
>>> pretentious Aramaic is also characteristic. The young woman's "Kiss my
>>> ass" is met with the paranoid's ominous and obscure: "It has been
>>> counted and counted, weighed and divided."
>>>
>>> I'm unclear why the "tokus" in "Kisch mein tokus" is spelled this way;
>>> it's not apparently an unknown transliteration of the Yiddish word for
>>> "ass" but it seems to be an uncommon one - I can't find any online
>>> citations for this phrase that don't come from "V."
>>>
>>> For a validation of Pynchon's spelling:
>>> http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tokus
>>>
>>> For a detailed, appropriately Talmudic analysis of the original Jewish
>>> scripture Stencil quotes, see:
>>> http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=459&letter=M
>>>
>>> For a look at one of Rembrandt's greatest narrative images,
>>> illustrating this passage from Daniel:
>>> http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Rembrandt-Belsazar.jpg
>>>
>>> --
>>> Richard Ryan
>>> New York and the World
>>> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
>>>
>
>