GR translation: with edges fine and combed as rain

[Mike Jing]

Gotcha.  Thanks.


On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 2:22 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> Combed implies precision, tidiness and goes with "fine edges."  But the
> image of the houses and mountains are called "strangely blurred," the
> opposite of fine edges.  So the "as rain" qualifier to "edges fine and
> combed" means it is NOT fine edged and combed.
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 12:32 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>> Interesting.  In that case, "combed" would simply mean "straightened with
>> a comb" then, is that correct?
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 11:26 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> I believe the phrase "with edges fine and combed as rain" is a figure of
>>> speech meaning the visible edges of the mountains and home reflected in the
>>> are **anything but** "fine and combed."  They "remain strangelt blurred.
>>>
>>> I don't know the term for this kind of figure of speech, but it is akin
>>> to the phrase "smart as a box of rocks."
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 8:58 AM, Mike Jing <
>>> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> P272.29-36   The city below him, bathed now in a partial light, is a
>>>> necropolis of church spires and weathercocks, white castle-keep towers,
>>>> broad buildings with mansard roofs and windows glimmering by thousands.
>>>> This forenoon the mountains are as translucent as ice. Later in the day
>>>> they will be blue heaps of wrinkled satin. The lake is mirror-smooth but
>>>> mountains and houses reflected down there remain strangely blurred, with
>>>> edges fine and combed as rain: a dream of Atlantis, of the Suggenthal. Toy
>>>> villages, desolate city of painted alabaster. . . .
>>>>
>>>> What does "combed" mean here?
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20130315/c45c0c7f/attachment.html>