GR translation: opening as they were moved into new white abyss

[David Morris]

The Angels "designates," but there is no sign of participation.  The
action may be fated, but man is wholly responsible.

On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 7:43 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> my looked-up 'reading'....
>
> "Deep wings' IS a term applied to wings, a search tells me
> and yes they 'open' to have air sweep over the wings
>
> ice crystals on the bomber's wings naturally were "swept ..away" [from the
> bomber's wings]
> there was a new white
> opening--an abyss, a nothingness--in the ice....
>
> It is a Rilkean-like Angel of Death seen, we know......'miles beyond
> designating"..
> We get impressionism around the pilot's views but
>
> almost no info about the Angel....
>
>
> From: Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> To: Pynchon Mailing List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 2:34 AM
> Subject: GR translation: opening as they were moved into new white abyss
>
> P153.23-30  Basher St. Blaise’s angel, miles beyond designating,
> rising over Lübeck that Palm Sunday with the poison-green domes
> underneath its feet, an obsessive crossflow of red tiles rushing up
> and down a thousand peaked roofs as the bombers banked and dived, the
> Baltic already lost in a pall of incendiary smoke behind, here was the
> Angel: ice crystals swept hissing away from the back edges of wings
> perilously deep, opening as they were moved into new white abyss. . .
> .
>
> Why are the wings described as "perilously deep"?  I assume these are
> the wings of the bombers, am I right?  What exactly is this "new white
> abyss"?  And I assume it is the ice crystals that are "opening", is
> that correct?
>
>