GR translation: We have to play the patterns.

[Mike Jing]

That's quite correct.  However, please keep in mind that my primary concern
is the translation.
So it's useful to see what it means for different people, so that I can
choose the best word in Chinese that has the right connotations.


On Wed, Mar 6, 2013 at 7:52 AM, <bandwraith at aol.com> wrote:

> It depends on the answer to the preceding question- "Who knows?" Who is
> who? Is trajectory- rocket, character, narrative, historical, etc.-
> controlled internally or externally? Locally or more universally? Frame,
> reference, p.o.v. are all in play here. Is there a piano player or is this
> tune being produced by a player piano? Anybody's guess. Do the rats control
> the experiment or are they being controlled? And what about that hand with
> the light touch on the Ouija's planchette? The text is filled with these
> little paranoid angles. My own preference- no one (except maybe The Shadow,
> and she ain't about to reveal herself any time soon) knows.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> To: Pynchon Mailing List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Wed, Mar 6, 2013 2:42 am
> Subject: GR translation: We have to play the patterns.
>
>  It dawns on Slothrop, literally, through the yellowbrown window shade,
> that this is his first day Outside. His first free morning. He doesn’t have
> to go back. Free? What’s free? He falls asleep at last. A little before
> noon a young woman lets herself in with a passkey and leaves him the
> papers. He is now an English war correspondent named Ian Scuffling.
> “This is the address of one of our people in Zürich. Waxwing wishes you
> good luck and asks what kept you so long.”
> “You mean he wants an answer?”
> “He said you’d have to think about it.”
> “Sa-a-a-ay.” It’s just occurred to him. “Why are all you folks helping me
> like this? For free and all?”
> “Who knows? We have to play the patterns. There must be a pattern you’re
> in, right now.”
>
>  What is the meaning of "play the patterns"?
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20130307/c390c6f1/attachment.html>