GR translation: snarling inward toward that famous S-curve

[alice wellintown]

I'm curious. How does the other translator deal with this passage? It
is certainly difficult, though I wouldn't characterize the phrase
Monte has labeled "awkward" as awkward, but rather typical Pynchon,
Monte's suggestion works for me. That is, move the phrase between the
comma and the dash (",promising a lively sprint for Slothrop--"),
perhaps, to the beginning of the sentence, and we have almost the same
meaning.

But the structure of the passage is so typical of Pynchon's style that
it seems to me that if one is going to characterize it, or even a part
of it, as "awkward" or as having an "awkwardly inserted"  phrase or
whatever, then one is going to have to fix or edit a materpiece,
re-arrange hundreds off such passages, thousands of sentences.
Moreover, P continues to write with these "awkwardly inserted"
phrases, so it seems that he, and his editors, don't think of them as
awkward or in need of revision.

A minor quibble, sure. But, while I agree with Monte's reading of it,
and with his solution, for getting at the meaning, moving the phrase
also alters, ever so slightly, the meaning of the original. How slight
is the alteration?  Well, it's the kind of change that Wood, the
famous English critic, who would fix Pynchon's style by re-arranging
the use, Wood would say, abuse, of the free indirect. Here, of course,
we have the author's free indirect causing some confusion because
some, as MalignD has, will misread the passage because P has elected
to place the "snarling" cars as close to Slothrop, on the page, and in
the mind of the character, as possible. It works, brilliantly. The
author wants the reader to experience Slothrop's difficulty navigating
the dangerous crossing of the highway, wants the reader to experience
the paranoia in THEY and THEM, somehow controlling the system of cars,
and to experience the allusion to Opel and so forth, through
Slothrop's paranois point of view. Moving the "awkward" phrase may
clear up some ambiguity that, a closer reading resolves without
editing, but at a price.

On 7/10/13, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
> OK.  The other translation is totally off then.  Thanks, Monte.
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 12:48 PM, Monte Davis
> <montedavis at verizon.net>wrote:
>
>> “Snarling” (like the later ”shrieking”) works for the noise of racing
>> automobile engines, and “inward” reinforces the idea from the sentence
>> before your quotation:****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> “The drivers are out tonight because They need them where they are,
>> forming a deadly barrier.” ****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Something is drawing traffic in from all over Berlin.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Maybe it’s the awkwardly inserted “promising a lively sprint for
>> Slothrop”
>> that causes trouble – read the passage without that, or move it
>> elsewhere,
>> and it’s clear enough.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> *From:* owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] *On
>> Behalf Of *Mike Jing
>> *Sent:* Wednesday, July 10, 2013 8:33 AM
>> *To:* Pynchon Mailing List
>> *Subject:* GR translation: snarling inward toward that famous S-curve****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> P386.9-16   Amateur Fritz von Opels all over the place here, promising a
>> lively sprint for Slothrop snarling inward toward that famous S-curve
>> where
>> maniacs in white helmets and dark goggles once witched their wind-faired
>> machinery around the banked brick in shrieking drifts (admiring eyes of
>> colonels in dress uniforms, colonels’ ladies in Garbo fedoras, all safe
>> up
>> in their white towers yet belonging to the day’s adventure, each waiting
>> for his own surfacing of the same mother-violence underneath . . .).****
>>
>> Who or what is doing the "snarling" here?****
>>
>