The Incidences of the phrase "Iceland Spar" in AtD - II

[Bled Welder]

Oh snap!  I like so totally already mentioned the Chummy purchase of the pearl right before they entered the center of the earth.  Eons ago.  Are you not reading my emails?  Because I can send them all again you know, and then again and again...   8--)

> Date: Sun, 4 Mar 2012 16:24:24 -0500
> Subject: The Incidences of the phrase "Iceland Spar" in AtD - II
> From: michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> 
> p 114 - the first mention in the text, of a Dr Mikimoto developing
> cultured pearls, has a basis in fact.
> And he founded the company in 1893.
> 
> http://www.mikimotoamerica.com/our-heritage/our-founder/
> 
> I didn't catch that the first time around!
> 
> of course, the Chums encounter the pearl via Lindsay, who unwittingly
> bites into an oyster containing one, which Miles has bought in East
> Java from "a gentleman of Japanese origin and unusual persuasiveness"
> (113)
> 
> -- in my humble literary interpretation, Lindsay's reaction of "an
> agonized scream...followed by half a minute of uncharacteristic
> profanity" recaps a naive but earnest reader's reaction when first
> happening upon embedded meaning in a text (darnit, I just want to read
> a ripping yarn, what's all this *symbolism* doing in here!)
> 
> the pearl is embedded in the oyster on purpose!  and the batch of
> oysters sold to Miles *on purpose* in order to disseminate the
> marching orders which themselves have been embedded in the pearl *by
> design*
> 
> there are at least a term paper's worth of twists and turns right here
> on 113-114
> 
> --eg - ok, the process is developed by Dr Mikimoto and no doubt
> co-opted and refined by the Japanese military who no doubt make
> Mikimoto an offer he can't refuse*, but hmmm how comes it that the
> Chums Hierarchy are able to use this secret method?  A-and the
> ruminations are hilarious ("What deliverance from the limitless
> mischief of pearls" makes me laugh every time, like my old favorite
> from childhood, "flying buttress" or "basement toilet flushes up")  --
> 
>  a-and... but I'm just doing a first pass!
> 
> 
> * so that the Pearls at the 1910 Anglo-Japanese Fair in London, the
> 1926 World's Fair in Philadelphia, and the 1939 World's Fair in New
> York (including a pearl model of the Liberty Bell, which "drew gasps"
> from visitors) contained propagandistic and who-knows-what subliminal
> messages -- no doubt the fiendish pearl-meisters were able to dictate
> the lighting and backdrops to accommodate their fiendish purposes...
 		 	   		  
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