GR translation: booming over air-shafts

[Mark Kohut]

I have belatedly remembered that in a book I browsed on/called Modern German Literature (a library discard) dated
1959 (but !st edition 1930s) the author used the word "booming' or "boomed" in describing how some books were published...that is what
we might call being "hyped' , being 'heavily promoted" ..........
 
Kind of example: Magic Mountain was heavily 'boomed' by its publisher.....which means proclaimed loudly but not literally loudly, which
is a nice variant of meaning perhaps relevant here......

From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> 
Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2012 7:04 AM
Subject: Re: GR translation: booming over air-shafts


Like.


From: Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org 
Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2012 12:56 PM
Subject: Re: GR translation: booming over air-shafts

On 5/12/2012 10:52 AM, David Morris wrote:
> 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.

Another sense contrasting with sound might be swinging--like the boom on 
a crane or sailboat does.  If the air shafts or air wells needed to be 
traversed. Or could booming be leaping over the air shafts.

P


>
> 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.
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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