GR translation: solid-set against the purple mountainslope

[Mark Kohut]

Just hyperventilating at the pointing out of the uses
of "against"...so fine, he's so fine .........

Satiric geniuses, "savage" satiric, comic geniuses, such as 
TRP was in this book at least, have to have a vision behind the satire
if it is to have depth,say the canon-makers..........

I love how 'against'--as Morris points out---shows that in this 'simple'
example....more nearly-hidden beauty.
(when I read such,I remember the person who scorned GR in some
piece cause it was 'nihilistic'....which we know isn't true)

And then that "Against' surfaces so majestically in a later work
functioning as some kind of book-length contrast..............

Wunderbar...

----- Original Message -----
From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
To: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Thursday, April 5, 2012 8:45 AM
Subject: Re: GR translation: solid-set against the purple mountainslope

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