V--2nd how about that ending, eh?

[bandwraith at aol.com]

I was thinking (conjecturing) more along the
lines of a composite situation, where each
node along the way has a real and imaginary
value, i.e., is a composite of the two, with the
usual literary tendency of conflating the real and
the imaginary, in order to transcend the map/
mapped dilemma.

If we consider, just for the sake of discussion, the
loose fit between Hilbert's 22+1 "unsolved"
hypotheses, and the 22 major arcana, # 8 in
Hilbert's schema- The Reimann Hypothesis
problem- matches up with either Strength or
Justice (some confusion between the two, natch,
depending on the deck) of the tarot- and this
may be the only connection between the two
cultural artifacts- who's to say?

If we further take the liberty (including the naval
connotation) of considering the points of contact
of the Inconvenience with the "real" earth, i.e., the
x axis, or zeroing in terms of the Zeta function- the
two journeys through the earth considered as
"trivial"- then we are left with a series of
meditations on the meaning of randomness in
a seemingly ordered world.

This may sound like the type of gematria that
only Professor Corey might be able to com-
prehend, and it may even be beyond his ken,
but I think, along with the question of where
(and when) the L.E.D. decides to lift his leg,
it's worth considering, rather than just scratching
our heads and accepting the latest lavatorial
assault from above, as a given dilemma of our
distinctly uncommon fate.



-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tue, Mar 1, 2011 5:33 pm
Subject: Re: V--2nd how about that ending, eh?


bandwraith wrote:
> To describe it on this plane you'd have to use
> an analogy, e.g., "Going up is like going north."
>
> You'd be moving into imaginary territory, but
> with ties to the real. It would provide a complex
> analysis of adult behavior.
>
>

I recently saw a reference to Linde theory, "where all the imaginary 
numbers go"
in a novel, but Linde's website seems to be more astrophysics than 
math...


> But anyway, you firmed up the point I was loosely referencing: I knew
> there was something about TSI but hadn't zeroed in on the contrast
> between the construction of Carl and the deconstruction of V. which is
> certainly more cogent than the slightly different reaction I had


(which would continue as sort of a standard lit-majorly production:

Benny is the sum of the infinitesimal tendencies of the sailors toward
civilian life: get ashore, get drunk, get a job, get a feel for the
civilian world, get hitched...
absent a hot crisis, these tendencies en masse result in
demobilization, but because of (in chapter 16) Suez, the gravitational
pull of duty counteracts these centripetal micro-movements for the
still-serving sailors -
but because of his momentum, Profane drifts free from that pull (his
yoyo string having been seemingly trained to female hands)

Stencil - the theorizing capability abstracted from the necessity for
action - the lamentable mantle of Empire having at some point in the
20th century passed from his homeland to its former colony, his habits
of observation, investigation, deduction all center upon imputing a
woman at the center of the crises.  His successive plottings of
historical points, though, rather than forming a curve, seem more like
a Hogarthian progression of paintings, with V. as the incarnation of
History (like one of the statues Dally poses for in AtD) - or at least
a muse or goddess - under the influence of some vicious Historical
Principle (militarism?) as ruinous to her as gin is to the London
rake...

and because of his momentum, he too avoids not just military
commitments but any conventional lasting social relationships.

so they both veer off, out of the story,

(etc, usw, in a similar vein...))