IV translation: Pierre

[Ian Livingston]

Another association with Pierre might consider Pynchon's indebtedness to
Melville, whose penultimate novel was Pierre, Or the Ambiguities.

Wikipedia:

Plot

It tells the story of Pierre Glendinning, junior, the 19-year-old heir of
the manor at Saddle Meadows in upstate New
York<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York>.
Pierre is engaged to the blonde Lucy Tartan in a match approved by his
domineering mother, who controls the estate since the death of his father,
Pierre, senior. When he encounters, however, the dark and mysterious Isabel
Banford, he hears from her the claim that she is his half-sister, the
illegitimate and orphaned child of his father and a European refugee.
Pierre reacts to the story (and to his magnetic attraction for Isabel) by
devising a remarkable scheme to preserve his father’s name, spare his
mother’s grief, and give Isabel her proper share of the estate.

He announces to his mother that he is married; she promptly throws him out
of the house. He and Isabel then depart for New York
City<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City>,
accompanied by a disgraced young woman, Delly Ulver. During their
stagecoach journey, Pierre finds and reads a fragment of a treatise on
“Chronometricals and Horologicals” on the differences between absolute and
relative virtue by one Plotinus Plinlimmon. In the city, Pierre counts on
the hospitality of his friend and cousin Glendinning Stanley, but is
surprised when Glen refuses to recognize him. The trio (Pierre, Isabel, and
Delly) find rooms in a former church converted to apartments, the Church of
the Apostles, now populated by impecunious artists, writers,
spiritualists<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualist>,
and philosophers <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosopher>, including the
mysterious Plinlimmon. Pierre attempts to earn money by writing a book,
encouraged by his juvenile successes as a writer.

He learns that his mother has died and has left the Saddle Meadows estate
to Glen Stanley, who is now engaged to marry Lucy Tartan. Suddenly,
however, Lucy shows up at the Apostles, determined to share Pierre’s life
and lot, despite his apparent marriage to Isabel, and Pierre and the three
women live there together as best they can, while their scant money runs
out. Pierre’s writing does not go well — having been
"Timonized<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Timonized>"
by his experiences, the darker truths he has come to recognize cannot be
reconciled with the light and innocent literature the market seeks. Unable
to write, he has a vision in a trance of an earth-bound stone giant
Enceladus <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enceladus_(mythology)> and his
assault on the heavenly Mount of Titans. Beset by debts, by fears of the
threats of Glen Stanley and Lucy’s brother, by the rejection of his book by
its contracted publishers, by fears of his own incestuous passion for
Isabel, and finally by doubts of the truth of Isabel’s story, Pierre guns
down Glen Stanley at rush hour on Broadway, and is taken to jail in The
Tombs <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tombs>. There Isabel and Lucy visit
him, and Lucy dies of shock when Isabel addresses Pierre as her brother.
Pierre then seizes upon the secret poison vial that Isabel carries and
drinks it, and Isabel finishes the remainder, leaving three corpses as the
novel ends.

On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 9:53 AM, Max Nemtsov <max.nemtsov at gmail.com> wrote:

> p. 39
> "Ask you something, Doc?"
> "Long as it ain't the capital of South Dakota, sure."
>
> colleagues, are there any special jokes re Pierre I'm not aware of, apart
> from different pronunciations of the name or the fact that it's too
> difficult to name, being obscure in California or something?
> again, your suggestions will be much appreciated
> Mx
>



-- 
"Less than any man have I  excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all creeds
the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the trust in
reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments of darkness
groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates than the simplest
urchin in the streets." -- Will Durant
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