GR translation: solid-set against the purple mountainslope

[Bekah]

Mountains appear purple when they are at a distance - the bigger the mountain and the further away the more purple it looks.  This is because the red light gets diffused much more readily than the blue.  

"O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain!"

Bekah

On Apr 5, 2012, at 7:05 AM, Joe Allonby wrote:

> And of course, the majestic mountain is purple
> 
> 
> On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 8:45 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Slight quibble:  "solid-set" isn't in *sharp* contrast to the
>> mountains, both man and mountain are similarly solid-set, just a case
>> of foreground Vs. background, similar but different.  Notice the two
>> sets of "against" pairings in this segment (both cases of one thing in
>> front of another):
>> 
>> "This Crutchfield here is browned by sun, wind and dirt—against the
>> deep brown slats of the barn or stable wall he is wood of a different
>> grain and finish."
>> 
>> "He is good-humored, solid-set against the purple mountainslope"
>> 
>> If anything, these descriptions make him almost a part of the
>> landscape/scene.  I'd say Pynchon is playing with the image of the
>> Marlboro Man:
>> 
>> 
>> http://richardcraiganderson.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Marlboro-Man.jpg
>> 
>> 
>> David Morris
>> 
>> On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 6:35 AM, Paul Mackin wrote:
>>> On 4/5/2012 2:07 AM, Mike Jing wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> P69.21-28  This Crutchfield here is browned by sun, wind and dirt—against the deep brown slats of the barn or stable wall he is wood of a different grain and finish.  He is good-humored, solid-set against the purple mountainslope, and looking half into the sun. His shadow is carried strained coarsely back through the network of wood inside the stable—beams, lodgepoles, stall uprights, trough-trestlework, rafters, wood ceiling-slats the sun comes through: blinding empyrean even at this failing hour of the day.
>>>> 
>>>> What does "solid-set against the purple mountainslope" mean?
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> appearing unmovable
>>> 
>>> in sharp contrast to the mountain slope