GR translation: booming over air-shafts

[Paul Mackin]

On 5/13/2012 10:42 AM, David Morris wrote:
> I'm not sure everyone knows what a French Curve is anymore. They
> aren't used much these days, CAD replacing hand-drafting.  But I grew
> up old-school, and used these often, back in the day...

I learned  about them in junior high school in "mechanical drawing" as 
it was called back then--immediately thought of scantily clad dancing girls.

P


>
> http://jep-s.blogspot.com/2010/07/french-curve.html
>
> On Sat, May 12, 2012 at 10:39 AM, Mark Kohut<markekohut at yahoo.com>  wrote:
>> Flourishing is another synonym given for booming in this sense
>> and don't you just love the genius of "French-curved" ?
>> One can visualize it all..........
>>
>> That TRP, he sure can write...
>>
>> From: David Morris<fqmorris at gmail.com>
>> To: Paul Mackin<mackin.paul at verizon.net>
>> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2012 10:52 AM
>> Subject: Re: GR translation: booming over air-shafts
>>
>> I agree w/ Paul about "chase."  "whipped in glassy French-curved chase
>> across the rooftops" brings up an image of wind-blown snow eddies.
>>
>> "Booming" would normally mean a loud deep sound like a drum or
>> explosion (especially in relation to air shafts that commonly carry
>> sound like an amplifier), but just following it says "too tenuous
>> themselves for sound," which negates their being able to boom (make a
>> loud sound).  So it seems Pynchon is deliberately playing against the
>> obvious meaning, probably with the alternative meaning: "producing in
>> great numbers," as in a population boom of ghosts.
>>
>> boom·ing/ˈbo͞omiNG/
>> Adjective:
>> 1.Having a period of great prosperity or rapid economic growth.
>> 2.(of a sound or voice) Loud, deep, and resonant.
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>>
>> On Sat, May 12, 2012 at 8:44 AM, Paul Mackin<mackin.paul at verizon.net>
>> wrote:
>>> On 5/12/2012 7:02 AM, jochen stremmel wrote:
>>>>
>>>> By the way, Mike, I looked up this passage as well, and the
>>>> translators of the German edition, Austrian Nobel Prize winner
>>>> Elfriede Jelinek and/or Thomas Piltz (one of the best), choose for
>>>> "booming": »bebend über den Klangsäulen der Lüftungsschächte«,
>>>> slightly dodging the problem, and for "chase" the other word, like I
>>>> would have done, too: »in gläsern kurvenangepaßter Jagd über Dachfirst
>>>> und silberne Hügel gepeitscht«
>>>
>>>
>>> I think I hear chase more in the sense of a random scampering or darting,
>>> or
>>> maybe racing.
>>>
>>> Like, say, the children were seen in a helter-skelter haphazard chase
>>> across
>>> the lawn.
>>>
>>> assuming spirits move in an unrestrained almost random manner
>>>
>>> They could of course be hunting for something, but that wouldn't be my
>>> first
>>> reaction.
>>>
>>>
>>> P
>>>
>>>>
>>>> J
>>>>
>>>> 2012/5/12 Mike Jing<gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>:
>>>>>
>>>>> P140.32-35  Now ghosts crowd beneath the eaves. Stretched among snowy
>>>>> soot chimneys, booming over air-shafts, too tenuous themselves for
>>>>> sound, dry now forever in this wet gusting, stretched and never
>>>>> breaking, whipped in glassy French-curved chase across the rooftops,
>>>>> along the silver downs, skimming where the sea combs freezing in to
>>>>> shore.
>>>>>
>>>>> Does "booming" mean "making a deep, prolonged, resonant sound" here?
>>>>> The published translation went with the other meaning, which doesn't
>>>>> feel quite right to me.  I could be very wrong, of course.
>>>>>
>>>>> Also, what exactly is "chase" here?  I have found:
>>>>>
>>>>> 1. a rectangular iron frame in which composed type is secured or
>>>>> locked for printing or platemaking.
>>>>> 2. Building Trades . a space or groove in a masonry wall or through a
>>>>> floor for pipes or ducts.
>>>>> 3. a groove, furrow, or trench; a lengthened hollow.
>>>>>
>>>>> and I am leaning towards #3.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>