Fwd: Re: Atdtda34: Details one had simply ignored, 954-956 #1

[Paul Mackin]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: Atdtda34: Details one had simply ignored, 954-956 #1
Date: 	Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:18:58 -0500
From: 	Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
To: 	Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>



On 1/21/2012 1:20 PM, Mark Kohut wrote:
> I think Joseph's phrase that matters so to P's vision, abstractly 
> stated....(You, Paul, and Joseph give it verbal depth) is
> "very human"......
> "simplified"matters too, imho....the complexification of the world is 
> part of its self-destructive reality, I might
> argue

Well, ONE kind of humanity, one that may suit Cyprian better at this 
point in his life than did the Cambridge-type humanity of his past. (as 
Paul notes) But the simple, tradition-oriented humanity found here in 
the Bulgarian countryside is less likely to be the sort that could ever 
to suit Reef or his descendents. Because being human also means being 
capable of complex problem solving, creating advanced technologies and 
even being political, this last being what Reef and his descendents seem 
to have their eyes on, including Ljubica, Reef's second chance, though I 
forget for the moment what ever does happen to Ljubica.

But humanity does not have to be simple, and if complexity may be a 
danger to some aspects of it, that is no reason to change definitions.

P


>
> *From:* Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
> *To:* Pynchon Mailing List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> *Sent:* Saturday, January 21, 2012 12:11 PM
> *Subject:* Re: Atdtda34: Details one had simply ignored, 954-956 #1
>
> agree. Ljubica (meaning love or kiss)seems a very natural person born 
> in a very human and simplified landscape of Bulgaria, the  oddly still 
> center of the coming storm  where most of the weirdness is gone or 
> external.The Balkan folk are aware of what is moving all around them 
> but are settled into treasuring their own lives, roses, food, babies, 
> song. Cyprian seems utterly wearied with desire, lusts, games, the 
> great game, wars, maybe even deeper things like time or individuality.
> On Jan 21, 2012, at 10:31 AM, Paul Nightingale wrote:
>
> > Ljubica's freedom is Reef's "second chance", another reminder of 
> Jesse. The
> > current chapter has featured several such reminders, or repetitions, for
> > both Reef and Cyprian. For Cyprian, the text recalls his career to date:
> > "old Ratty McHugh" (932) and the narrative that opens up thereafter, 
> "the
> > moment in Salonica ..." etc (939), Gabrovo Slim (947), the 
> introspection of
> > "the only thing he could be certain of ..." etc (949), the 
> recognition of
> > Vamos (951), the final paragraph of 64.12 (954). However, Reef has
> > frequently provided repetition-as-translation: "[k]ind of like 
> Omaha" and
> > "five dollars" (945), "holding Jesse the first time" (950), the 
> reference to
> > Kit (950), the "second chance" (954). For Reef, then, these moments 
> do not
> > advance the narrative as they do for Cyprian. In particular, Cyprian is
> > isolated by introspection (949, 954), even though the narrative has been
> > driven by the characters that he (re)introduces. Cf his perspective 
> on the
> > Halkata (955). Here, wandering ("as if blindly obeying a compass fatally
> > sensitive to anomaly") is juxtaposed to the certainties of fate: the
> > "raptors" that presage "what was soon to break over [the country]", 
> followed
> > by the "local curse" that hastens Cyprian's recollection of "[t]he 
> last time
> > I was out here". If Reef resists transformation, Cyprian sees local 
> culture
> > as an alternative to the past: "Details one had simply ignored at 
> Cambridge
> > or Vienna ..." etc.
> >
>
>
>


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