GR translation: two lobes symmetrical about the rocket’s intended azimuth
Mike Jing
gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com
Sun Jun 17 23:15:10 CDT 2012
P209.27-210.4 Sir Stephen introduces himself, freckles roused by the
sun, eying the comic book curiously. “I gather this isn’t a study
period.”
“Is he cleared?”
“He’s cleared,” Katje smiling/shrugging at Dodson-Truck.
“Taking a break from that Telefunken radio control. That ‘Hawaii I.’
You know anything about that?”
“Only enough to wonder where they got the name from.”
“The name?”
“There’s a poetry to it, engineer’s poetry . . . it suggests Haverie—
average, you know—certainly you have the two lobes, don’t you,
symmetrical about the rocket’s intended azimuth . . . hauen, too—
smashing someone with a hoe or a club . . .” off on a voyage of his
own here, smiling at no one in particular, bringing in the popular
wartime expression ab-hauen, quarterstaff technique, peasant humor,
phallic comedy dating back to the ancient Greeks. . . . Slothrop’s
first impulse is to get back to what that Plas is into, but something
about the man, despite obvious membership in the plot, keeps him
listening . . . an innocence, maybe a try at being friendly in the
only way he has available, sharing what engages and runs him, a love
for the Word.
What are these "two lobes"? Two halves of the rocket, the rocket's
trajectory, or something else?
More information about the Pynchon-l
mailing list