GR translation: What passes are these, so blurred, so old and perfect?

[Paul Mackin]

Hearts may be the first thing you think of, but did anyone besides me 
have intimations of Us/Them--the Slothrop tribe's preterite status in 
America versus the upper crust, here weirdly  represented by Nazi 
casino-goers, or maybe not so weirdly?  The PASSED over versus the 
Elect. White hands doing the passing.

P

On 6/15/2012 8:21 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:
> a great reading here. Jochen getting the typo and proven indubitably 
> correct within days is why
> the plist is worth it, yes?
> Also, a quick google search of 'passes' in card games shows the word 
> is used often with those
> games out of the scribbage family, like bridge, but most 
> perhaps--again in a very hit & miss
> browse---in the so-popular Hearts.
> So, maybe that is what game They are playing, another chance for TRP 
> to hide in plain sight
> a resonant metaphor if only in the name......
>
> *From:* Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> *To:* Pynchon Mailing List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> *Sent:* Friday, June 15, 2012 3:04 AM
> *Subject:* Re: GR translation: What passes are these, so blurred, so 
> old and perfect?
>
> I think I understand it better now.  Thanks all.
>
> On Thu, Jun 14, 2012 at 3:30 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com 
> <mailto:fqmorris at gmail.com>> wrote:
> > This is a numinous segment at a pivotal point in Slothrop's journey.
> > In the middle of these observations of this evil room Slothrop
> > *almost* sees a manlike/rootlike figure that will reappear after
> > Slothrop has become a mandala, a crossroads, a Buddha:  The mandrake
> > root.  But he's not there yet, not "to be let off quite so easy."
> >
> > The "Forbidden Wing" of the song might refer to a section of the White
> > Visitation, but it more likely refers to the hospital wing where he
> > was an infant experimental subject.  Slothrop is here again abandoned
> > w/o understanding or defenses in an environment designed to break him
> > down, use him.  And he recognizes his plight.
> >
> > The "passes [..]  so blurred, so old and perfect" probably refer to
> > gestures in a card game, declining another card or bet.
> >
> > The moment passes with his "Fuck you," "the only spell he knows, and a
> > pretty good all-purpose one at that."
> >
> > BTW, the "Forbidden" would also be the place in the Temple (Holy of
> > Holies) where the ark was kept, and where no one was allowed.  God's
> > earthly abode.
> >
> > David Morris
> >
> > On Thu, Jun 14, 2012 at 12:41 AM, Mike Jing
> > <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com 
> <mailto:gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >> P205.32-206.3   Why here? Why should the rainbow edges of what is
> >> almost on him be rippling most intense here in this amply coded room?
> >> say why should walking in here be almost the same as entering the
> >> Forbidden itself—here are the same long rooms, rooms of old paralysis
> >> and evil distillery, of condensations and residues you are afraid to
> >> smell from forgotten corruptions, rooms full of upright grayfeathered
> >> statues with wings spread, indistinct faces in dust—rooms fall of dust
> >> that will cloud the shapes of inhabitants around the corners or deeper
> >> inside, that will settle on their black formal lapels, that will
> >> soften to sugar the white faces, white shirt fronts, gems and gowns,
> >> white hands that move too quickly to be seen . . . what game do They
> >> deal? What passes are these, so blurred, so old and perfect?
> >>
> >> What are these "passes"?  Anything specifically related to gambling,
> >> magic, or just card games?
> >>
> >> And what is "the Forbidden"?
>
>


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