GR translation: social eye

[Mark Kohut]

I might argue in my schloarly-like nitpicking, that social eye was meant by Pynchon to 
be more than 'mind's eye"....(where love starts, but then gets ratified by a society, even just "a society of two"
as someone wrote...)
 
Besides some associations I have sent, I have since been reminded of that 
"eye of society" [from Emerson] that occurs early in Against the Day.....
 
Right around when the photorapher is chasing the woman in clothing disarray.......
 
That 'mind's eye', that 'third eye' that appears in that phrase in Against the Day is not the 'social eye"...


________________________________
From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2011 10:09 AM
Subject: RE: GR translation: social eye

Aside from the connotation of digging a hole farther down, "deepen" also implies becoming stronger, more powerful, more vibrant.  Colors in a sunset deepen, for example.  As your waking eyes adjust, blurred images come into sharper focus - deepen.  "Social eye," I guess, is just a phrase that Pynchon's constructed to force the analogy (maybe a little clumsily) of the visual to the emotional.  He didn't use the triter "mind's eye."

Laura


-----Original Message-----
>From: Mike Jing <mikezjing at hotmail.com>
>Sent: Oct 22, 2011 4:29 PM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: RE: GR translation: social eye
>
>
>Thanks for the detailed response.
>
>So "deepening" here means "coming into focus", i.e. becoming more clearly defined.  Is that correct?
>
>Also, I am still struggling to find an appropriate translation for "social eye".  I couldn't find any similar use anywhere.
>
>----------------------------------------
>> Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:53:50 -0400
>> From: kelber at mindspring.com
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Subject: Re: GR translation: social eye
>>
>> One of those really dense, tough sections.
>>
>> She is Nora, Eventyr is holding on (to her, or trying to).
>>
>> I'd read it this way: He's waking (becoming more clairvoyant and, simultaneously realizing he's in love), getting a real glimpse of her (she's deepening in his view), just as things come into focus when a sleeper opens his/her eyes. But simultaneously, she (who's the source of light for his eyes, his social eye being his mental, emotional viewpoint) is fading away, just as the light fades at twilight. Nothing can help him get her back (retain the light).
>>
>> Laura
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> >From: Mike Jing <mikezjing at hotmail.com>
>> >Sent: Oct 21, 2011 1:52 AM
>> >To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> >Subject: GR translation: social eye
>> >
>> >
>> >P148.6-9  Had he felt her, even then, beginning to recede...called up the control from across the Wall as a way of holding on?  She was deepening from his waking, his social eye like light at the edge of the evening when, for perhaps a perilous ten minutes, nothing helps: ...
>> >
>> >Lots of questions here, so please bear with me:
>> >
>> >Here "she" refers to Nora Dodson-Truck, is that correct?
>> >
>> >Who called up the control as a way of holding on, "she" or Eventyr?
>> >
>> >What is her "deepening"?  Is his "waking" referring to the awakening of his talent?
>> >
>> >What is "his social eye"?
>> >
>> >Thanks in advance.
>> >
>>
>                         
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