Habitual morning cup

[alice wellintown]

Pynchon employs a common technique to expound on several early themes
here and to develop his characters; he characterizes Mexico as the
nail biting statistician who knows that he has done only what any
intelligent person willing to open a book and read it can also do.
Mexico grows impatient with those who fail to see or understand of
accept the a simple law of statistics. Why the others fail or refuse
to see or accept Mexico's equation and map, or why they insist on
making him a prophet, his method a mystery, is the major point here.
While Mexico is smart enough to grasp, with no trouble, what the
others are doing, his blind spot is the mysterious or magical or
religious elements they mix into their equations. He wants no part of
being a freak or a guru or a person with special qualities or gifts.
In this, he is defending himself by claiming there is no defense,
everyone is equal in the eyes of the rocket. And so on....Pynchon
developing themes and characters with ideas and opposites, foils and
antagonists...it may read a bit heavy handed, as we may not accept
that Pointsman & Co. would have so much trouble with the P-Equation,
but it works here and Pynchon infuses the otherwise heavy handed
mouthpieced dialogue with poetry and allusions to keep the children
entertained.



On Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 11:30 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:
> On 6/16/2011 10:53 PM, Mike Jing wrote:
>
>> Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 06:28:23 -0400
>> Subject: Re: Habitual morning cup
>> From: alicewellintown at gmail.com
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>
> *snip*
>> morning. The flask belongs to the pavlovian, Pointsman. Pavlov
>> allusion. Pavlov used such a flask with seeds in it.
>
> Are you sure?  To me it appears to be a description of Mexico's office, with
> his textbooks and Jessica's snapshot and whatnot.  Am I mistaken?
>
>
> Somehow Roger has obtained the Erlenmeyer from Pointsman's lab down the
> corridor.  Or. the flask might be the same one Roger was carrying the ether
> in earlier  (through that one would be probably have been smaller that the
> coffee brewing size).
>
> Pointsman goes in to talk to Roger about statistics, which, if Pointsman
> only knew it, were as important to ones and zeros as they are to  locations
> of bomb strikes.
>
> In the forties many experimentalists were not as statistically sophisticated
> as they are today.
>
> P
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