V---2nd. Chap 13 still "What is your act, ace?"

[Mark Kohut]

Belated note to a post I've lost...mentioning Locke (from Mike F. maybe?)?

Anyway, Shakespeare scholar Garber sez Locke, mid-600s, quoting him on persons
as agents that 'act' in different ways put into political theory for the first 
time
the notion Shakespeare brought forth with originality in his plays--and, in fact
in the very fact of Elizabethan plays---the notion that we live as if on a 
stage, acting......
[In Morality plays, Qualities were one with themselves, not just roles, so to 
speak]

A modernist understanding of we humans, as was posted....

"What is your act, ace?".........A little research shows this phrase does not 
show up in Google Book Search
before the 1800s, but that could be a function of writings not there.. in the 
1800s this phrase 

as is was seldom asked unless followed by religious overtones.....'What is your 
act
of Faith?" say.....the phrase meaning that one wills oneself 
intentionally......it shows
up in a Joseph Campbell book (later, of course) as What is your Act of Truth? 
asked 

of a 
guru........................................................................

But it was also used in the circus world: 'What is your act? What do you do?'








 


----- Original Message ----
From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Fri, January 7, 2011 1:12:40 PM
Subject: V---2nd. Chap 13 still "What is your act, ace?"

Benny snaps at Stencil. p. 385 hc

"Paola loves you, Profane." 
"You think that impresses me? What is your act, ace? 

"Ace" is an ironic slap, here, yes?  ("Young Stencil sighed".)

Lots of use of 'ace' in AtD.....
 
From wikipedia on Ace:
it traditionally meant 'bad luck' in Middle English, but as the ace is often the 

highest playing card, its meaning has since changed to mean 'high-quality, 
excellence'. This connotation has seen the word applied to a.... a person 
proficient in their field, especially a sporting field.
Historically, the ace had the lowest value and this still holds in many popular 
European games..... However, in most games popular in the English-speaking 
world, aces have the highest value of all cards in a suit. Many games, such as 
poker and blackjack, allow the player to choose whether the ace is used as a 
high or low card. 

The folk tradition of "ace high" existed in some games as of the late 15th 
century, The promotion of the ace symbolised the removal of the nobility 
(especially King Louis XVI) and the promotion of the common man. 

 
I think TRP has Benny call him 'excellent' [in his sporting field]...but Benny 
spits out the bad luckness [to him] of it at the same time.