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

[Mark Kohut]

!!!!...!!!!....!!!!....!!!!

Synchronicity or WTF? Amazing.


----- Original Message ----
From: James Kyllo <jkyllo at gmail.com>
To: Joe Allonby <joeallonby at gmail.com>
Cc: kelber at mindspring.com; pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Tue, February 8, 2011 2:30:47 PM
Subject: Re: V2, Chap 15 (Sahha), I, p 461 - "Mene, mene tekel, upharsin"

More often than one might have thought...  I read it yesterday in
volume 4 of "In Search of Lost Time"

J

On Tue, Feb 8, 2011 at 7:07 PM, Joe Allonby <joeallonby at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>>>> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
>>>>
>>
>>
>



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