Habitual morning cup

[alice wellintown]

I think it is Mexico's office, but Pointsman's flask. I'll have to
re-read and it may be, as so much in the work is, indeterminate.
Sorry, can not say with much confidence.

On Sat, Jun 18, 2011 at 10:15 AM, alice wellintown
<alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>