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

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

FWIW, during a Finnegans Wake marathon in 2009, I was fortunate enough
to read the following bit:

"It is the same told of all. Many. Miscegenations on miscegenations.
Tieckle. They lived und laughed ant loved end left. Forsin."

http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/jjoyce/fw-18.htm

Heikki

On Tue, 8 Feb 2011, Mark Kohut wrote:

> !!!!...!!!!....!!!!....!!!!
>
> 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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