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

[Mark Kohut]

Me. too..........

If I get up the whatever it takes to start that blog I've long self-boasted 
about, thinking
up titles for it obviously easier than doing it, maybe I'll call it:

"Mene, mene tekel, upharsin"......


----- Original Message ----
From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Tue, February 8, 2011 2:41:43 PM
Subject: Re: V2, Chap 15 (Sahha), I, p 461 - "Mene, mene tekel, upharsin"

I'm certainly tempted to scrawl it on walls now (next to the muted horn, Kilroy 
and the bandpass filter diagram).

Laura


-----Original Message-----
>From: James Kyllo <jkyllo at gmail.com>
>Sent: Feb 8, 2011 2:30 PM
>To: Joe Allonby <joeallonby at gmail.com>
>Cc: kelber at mindspring.com, pynchon-l at waste.org
>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
>>>>> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>
>-- 
>http://www.last.fm/user/Auto_Da_Fe
>http://www.pop.nu/en/show_collection.asp?user=2412
>http://www.librarything.com/profile/Auto_Da_Fe
>http://www.thedetails.co.uk/
>http://www.songkick.com/users/Auto_Da_Fe
>http://big-game.tumblr.com/