GR translation: social eye

[Paul Mackin]

On 10/25/2011 11:09 AM, David Morris wrote:
> My take:
>
> She is receding, while he is waking.  She is deepening (away from him)
> as he wakes.  They are moving in opposite directions.


I might as well get into the act.  There's enough for everybody.

Important in the over all scheme of things is the ambiguous relationship 
between Eventyr and Nora (first coming closer, then receding) AND how 
this maps (as is made more explicit later on) with the uncertainty over 
how implicated Leni might have been in Peter Sachsa's death.  (why he 
was out on the street)

Because, though Nora is many things (e.g., the sweetheart of Psi 
section),  above all she is Death, Damnation of the Preterite, Zero.  
She is bad news for those she "loves"--including her poor husband the 
"emasculated" Sir Dodson-Truck--just as Leni was for both Sachsa who 
loved her and Mr. Pokler who loved rockets.

Eventyr and Sachsa are mainly  innocent bystanders, as they enact their 
roles as Medium and Control. Neither is really aware of what goes on in 
the seances.  Eventyr is allowed only partial access to the transcripts.

Perhaps "social eye" is just something the Pyncher heard in one of his 
opiated dreams and decided to throw  into the stew, thinking no one 
would notice. :-)

P




>
> On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 9:50 AM,<kelber at mindspring.com>  wrote:
>> That sounds like a reasonable interpretation.
>>
>> Laura
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Mike Jing<gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>>> Sent: Oct 25, 2011 1:38 AM
>>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>> Subject: Re: GR translation: social eye
>>>
>>> I received the following from someone who would like to remain anonymous:
>>>
>>>> I wish I could stay out of this, but ... Laura may have pointed you
>>>> in the wrong direction. Especially considering the melancholy tone
>>>> of the passage, I suspect "deepening" means something more like
>>>> "withdrawing" or "retreating': remember that it's "deepening from," isn't it?
>>>> His "waking, social eye," then, his "waking [eye]" or "social eye,"
>>>> would seem to be his everyday perception as opposed to the (visionary?)
>>>> access he has when he's participating in seances.
>>> So it's being read as:
>>>
>>> She was deepening from his waking, his social eye, like light at the
>>> edge of the evening...
>>>
>>> It seems to make more sense to me.  Could the sentence be parsed like this?
>>>
>>> On Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 4:29 PM, Mike Jing<mikezjing at hotmail.com>  wrote:
>>>> 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.
>>>>>>
>>>>
>>