GR translation: Attitude 8.11, Torpor, Undergraduate.

[Paul Mackin]

On 6/19/2012 7:02 PM, Mark Kohut wrote:
> I think the link I sent relates to the MMPI stuff---or another like it.

I think it must. It covers some of the same ground as MMPI with some big 
differences.  Today there is a variety of psychological and personality  
inventorying.  Back then it was pretty much MMPI and that was a fairly 
recent development.   As far as updating is concerned, the test you 
linked us to contains a lot of multicultural material and of course they 
didn't do multicultural in the forties. Everyone was assumed to the 
white and from the Middle West.  M is for Minnesota.  Updated versions 
of the MMPI no doubt take full cognizance of the diversity of the USA.

MMPI is mentioned by name a few times in GR and SW explains this in the 
GR companion.

P


>
> *From:* "malignd at aol.com" <malignd at aol.com>
> *To:* pynchon-l at waste.org
> *Sent:* Tuesday, June 19, 2012 5:52 PM
> *Subject:* Re: GR translation: Attitude 8.11, Torpor, Undergraduate.
>
> I think this may have to do with the MMPI scales.  Scale 8 addresses 
> schizophrenia
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
> To: pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Tue, Jun 19, 2012 9:19 am
> Subject: Re: GR translation: Attitude 8.11, Torpor, Undergraduate.
>
> On 6/19/2012 8:33 AM, David Morris wrote:
> > 8.11 is the attitude of his body (see areonautics definition above).
> >
> > Torpor and Undergraduate would be additional non-aeronautic attitudes.
> >   He's launched himself toward Slothrop in a big flop.
>
> Yes, it sounds like Sir Stephen is typing or typecasting Slothrop in
> accordance with some psychological and physical classification system he
> is familiar with.
>
> Sir Stephen is a high order polymath. He needs to use such codifications
> as a means of adjusting himself to the wave lengths of lesser beings.
>
> Mark referenced something on these line that I didn't really get--like Mike.
>
> Also Stephen recognizes Slothrop as a reader--Plasticman.  Are there two
> of the human brain lobes that are associated with interpreting the
> word?  That might be a lead.  The Slothrops were people of the book or
> the word-- Holy Scripture--a fact mentioned close by in the text.
>
> P
>
>
> >
> > On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 12:47 AM, Lemuel Underwing
> > <luunderwing at gmail.com  <mailto:luunderwing at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >> Hmm could be some Numerology thing, 8 & 11 are both important numbers....
> >> but it could also be some sort of File... ah yes this is 8point11,
> >> T.Slothrop, ho-oning in on L-T. Slothrop.
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 10:16 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com  <mailto:gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>>
> >> wrote:
> >>> Yes, but what exactly does 8.11 indicate?  I can't find any reference
> >>> for such usage.  Also, how does that relate to Torpor and
> >>> Undergraduate?
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 8:59 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com  <mailto:fqmorris at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >>>> Attitude:
> >>>> Aeronautics . the inclination of the three principal axes of an
> >>>> aircraft relative to the wind, to the ground, etc.
> >>>>
> >>>> On Sun, Jun 17, 2012 at 10:15 PM, Mike Jing
> >>>> <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com  <mailto:gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>> wrote:
> >>>>> Hmmm...  It seems Attitude is an art term:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster%27s&word=attitude&use1913=on
> >>>>>
> >>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_%28art%29
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Still not sure where the 8.11 and Undergraduate came from.  Some
> >>>>> undergraduate art course maybe?
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 5:55 AM, Prashant Kumar
> >>>>> <p.kumar at physics.usyd.edu.au  <mailto:p.kumar at physics.usyd.edu.au>> wrote:
> >>>>>> So the best I've got is this. "Attitude 8.11" might be an angle of
> >>>>>> attack,
> >>>>>> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_of_attack), if we interpret "flung
> >>>>>> himself" literally. Otherwise maybe it's a rating of some sort? And
> >>>>>> Torpor
> >>>>>> and Undergraduate could refer to the esteem in which Dodson-Truck
> >>>>>> holds
> >>>>>> Slothrop (he's teaching him German or something IIRC, right?)
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Sorry I couldn't be of more help; this passage is rather abstruse.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Prashant
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> On 16 June 2012 16:32, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com  <mailto:gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>>
> >>>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>>> P209.13-26   Well, no, Slothrop doesn’t see, not exactly. He hears
> >>>>>>> this sort of thing from Dodson-Truck nearly every time they get
> >>>>>>> together. The man just materialized one day, out on the beach in a
> >>>>>>> black suit, shoulders starred with dandruff from thinning carrot
> >>>>>>> hair,
> >>>>>>> coming into view against the white face of the Casino, which trembled
> >>>>>>> over him as he approached. Slothrop was reading a Plasticman comic.
> >>>>>>> Katje was dozing in the sun, face-up. But when his footpads reached
> >>>>>>> her hearing, she turned on one elbow to wave hello. The peer flung
> >>>>>>> himself at full length, Attitude 8.11, Torpor, Undergraduate. “So
> >>>>>>> this
> >>>>>>> is Lieutenant Slothrop.”
> >>>>>>> Four-color Plasticman goes oozing out of a keyhole, around a corner
> >>>>>>> and up through piping that leads to a sink in the mad Nazi
> >>>>>>> scientist’s
> >>>>>>> lab, out of whose faucet Plas’s head now, blank carapaced eyes and
> >>>>>>> unplastic jaw, is just emerging. “Yeah. Who’re you, Ace?”
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> What does "flung himself at full length" mean?  And what is "Attitude
> >>>>>>> 8.11, Torpor, Undergraduate."?  Military slang?  Rocketry jargon?
> >>>>>>> What?
> >>>>>>
> >>
>
>
>
>


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