V-2nd C4 The (As It Were) Jacobean Etiology

Mon Jan 17 07:40:26 CST 2011

And, having reencountered Measure for Measure in my metered old age,
I suggest that play influenced him deeply in this regard.......

A play so consciously without revenge, even by legal authorities..............

----- Original Message ----
From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>; pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Mon, January 17, 2011 7:13:08 AM
Subject: Re: V-2nd C4 The (As It Were) Jacobean Etiology

Someone has said that, in Pynchon's sine curve of History, thanks Michael B,,
Jacobean marks a low point in the cycle......

And, I think Pynchon dove deep mentally to get a handle on and work into
his vision, ways to break the revenge cycle historically....I offer Monroe's
focus on the word 'etiology'..................

The revenge cycle is older'n Homer.....
__________________________________________

"Jacobean etiology"

Pynchon must mean "Jacobean" in the sense of the Jacobean
revenge-plays, written during the reign of James I (1603 – 1625) in
England, the hallmarks of such plays being lust, revenge and murder.
Where the plays of the Elizabethan era (1558-1603) were characterized
by a sense of providential justice, a sense that the ravages of evil
will ultimately be overcome by an inevitable movement of the cosmos
toward moral harmony, Jacobean tragedies tended to depict corruption
and violence that did not suggest divine retribution, the ultimate
triumph of good and restoration of moral order.

Interesting that Pynchon uses "etiology" which usually means the cause
of a disease, to characterize Esther's motivation for the trip to
Cuba.

----- Original Message ----
From: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sun, January 16, 2011 6:56:39 PM
Subject: V-2nd C4 The (As It Were) Jacobean Etiology

"She was sexually turned on, was all ..." (V., Ch. 4, Pt. III, p. 112)

,
"She was sexually turned on"

"Fulfilling the male image of the sexually desirable woman, [Esther]
lets herself be trapped by her own body.  Unable to penetrate beyond
its surface, she does not evolve and thus remains a fetish that lacks
the ability to devlop into full adulthood" (Hawthorne,
"'Hermaphrodite,'" 84, in Grant, Companion, 64)

See ...

Hawthorne, Mark D.  “A ‘Hermaphrodite Sort of Deity’:
  Sexuality, Gender, and Gender Blending in Thomas Pynchon’s V."
  Studies in the Novel 29.1 (Spring 1997): 74-93.

http://www.engl.unt.edu/sitn/archives_vol_29.html

"a secret switch"

Cf. ...

"He'd devised an ingenious sleep-switch, receiving its signal from two
electrodes placed on the inner skin of his forearm.  When Fergus
dropped below a certain level of awareness, the skin resistance
increased over a preset value to operate the switch.  Fergus thus
became an extension of the TV set"." (V., Ch. 2, p. 52)

"Bongo-Shaftsbury ... rolled up the shirt cuff and thrust the naked
underside of his arm at the girl. Shiny and black, sewn into the
flesh, was a miniature electric switch. Single-pole, double-throw.
[...] Thin silver wires ran from its terminals up the arm,
disappearing under the sleeve." (V., Ch. 3, Pt. IV, pp. 80-1)

... and see, e.g., ...

http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mirror_Time#Switches

http://www.anxietyofobsolescence.com/chapter-2/synthetic-human-object/

"A cavity is a cavity"

Sometimes a cavity is just a cavity?  A cavity is a cavity is a
cavity?  But would a cavity, by any other name, still smell as sweet?
Huh?  Huh?

"a dab of Shalimar"

http://www.guerlain.com/int/en/home-parfum/catalogue-parfums/women-fragrances/women-fragrances-range-shalimar/

"Shalimar is a women’s fragrance originally created by Jacques
Guerlain in 1921 as a classic soft amber (Oriental) parfum, and
currently produced by Guerlain."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalimar_(perfume)

"'many ways of saying no'"

Cf. ...

"... yes I said yes I will Yes."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Bloom's_soliloquy

"Esther's nos: that says it all....  Once nos can be repeated there is
no saying whether the nos are simply repeats, differences, or
contraries.  And no cannot even be preserved from yes [the
truth-tables overturned], what hope for the sanctity of the animate?"
(McHoul and Wills, Writing Pynchon, 175, in Grant, Companion, 64-5)

See ...

McHoul, Alec and David Wills. Writing Pynchon:
  Strategies in Fictional Analysis. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1990.

http://www.jstor.org/pss/4240094

columella

The fleshy external end of the nasal septum is sometimes also called columella.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_septum

chondrectomy

Shaving or chondrectomy is a procedure where the main focus is the
reduction of the inflammation. When performing chondrectomy, the
damaged cartilage is removed, and the aim is to level the cartilage
surface through a more or less radical operation....

http://biomed.brown.edu/Courses/BI108/2006-108websites/group08Cartilage/Pages/Pallative_Shaving.htm

osteoclastible

Not in the OED, and all googling points to Pynchon.  Cf. ...

osteoclasis, n.

Pronunciation:  Brit. /ˌɒstɪəʊˈkleɪsɪs/ , U.S. /ˈˌɑstioʊˈkleɪsɨs/
Etymology:  < osteo- comb. form+ ancient Greek κλάσιςfracture (see
-clase comb. form). Compare earlier diaclasis n.With sense 2, compare
earlier osteoclast n. 1

1. Surg. Intentional fracturing of a bone, esp. to correct a deformity

2. Pathol. and Physiol. Destruction of bone; spec. resorption of bone
by osteoclasts.

http://oed.com/view/Entry/234089#eid13416821

http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/Osteoclasis

"Jacobean etiology"

Pynchon must mean "Jacobean" in the sense of the Jacobean
revenge-plays, written during the reign of James I (1603 – 1625) in
England, the hallmarks of such plays being lust, revenge and murder.
Where the plays of the Elizabethan era (1558-1603) were characterized
by a sense of providential justice, a sense that the ravages of evil
will ultimately be overcome by an inevitable movement of the cosmos
toward moral harmony, Jacobean tragedies tended to depict corruption
and violence that did not suggest divine retribution, the ultimate
triumph of good and restoration of moral order.

Interesting that Pynchon uses "etiology" which usually means the cause
of a disease, to characterize Esther's motivation for the trip to
Cuba.

In Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49 contains an extended parody of the
Jacobean revenge-play formula, titled The Courier's Tragedy and
written by the fictitious Richard Wharfinger.

http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_4

Cf. ...

"... the landscape of evil Richard Wharfinger had fashioned for his
17th-century audiences, so preapocalyptic, death-wishful, sensually
fatigued, unprpeared, a little poignantly, for that abyss of civil war
that had been waiting, cold and deep, only a few years ahead of them."
(Lot 49, Ch. 3, p. 65)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0108&msg=59008

Etiology (alternatively aetiology, aitiology) is the study of
causation, or origination. The word is derived from the Greek
αἰτιολογία, aitiologia, "giving a reason for" (αἰτία, aitia, "cause";
and -λογία, -logia).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etiology

eti·ol·o·gy noun \ˌē-tē-ˈä-lə-jē\
plural eti·ol·o·gies
Definition of ETIOLOGY

1: cause, origin; specifically : the cause of a disease or abnormal condition
2: a branch of knowledge concerned with causes; specifically : a
branch of medical science concerned with the causes and origins of
diseases

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/etiology

"which see"

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quod_vide

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quod%20vide

.... q.v. ...