GR translation: even lost as he might feel again

[Mike Jing]

That helps a lot, actually.  It is not so much a dilemma but my lack of
understanding of the grammar of the sentence.  Thanks.


On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 11:39 PM, <bandwraith at aol.com> wrote:

> **It seems pretty straight forward, Mike, given the use he has made
> of the double integral symbol up to this point in the text, which I'm sure
> you're familiar with. Here, the term "even" used three times as an
> adverbial modifier: even lost, even more vulnerable, even preserved by
> accident, suggests a triple integration, which to my mind harkens back to
> "The Secret Integration." That is, a secret passage way out of the closed
> prison of causality that would preclude any exit from the inevitable. If
> such an escape were possible for Slothrop (and Katje, apparently) it must
> be predicated, according to the passage at hand, on the unpredictable, or
> chance. The only phenomenon in the universe, that I know of, that both
> resists and depends on chance, is life. And of course, love is a
> quintessential manifestation of life, even in perversity.
>
> Shoring that up a bit- double integration was engineered into the guidance
> mechanism of the A4. It's known as inertial guidance, because it depends on
> the inertial effects of acceleration. The rocket was programmed to travel a
> certain amount of time/distance before the fuel-feed to the engine was
> switched off. The switch was controlled by a double integrating circuit
> sensitive to the inertial effects of acceleration- the first integration of
> acceleration is velocity, the second is distance. The switch was capable of
> sensing when a certain acceleration had been reached, and by the
> integrating circuitry, a certain velocity, and again, distance. At the
> precise acceleration, velocity, distance- the switch was thrown and the
> fuel cut off. From that point in time onward, the rocket was purely
> ballistic. The only thing that could effect its predetermined course would
> have been chance. Some might also invoke grace- I won't go that far.
>
> So Slothrop, in the very bowels of the A4 factory, where the rockets
> themselves are produced according to predetermined blueprints, and along a
> double helix-like assembly line, has this longing for lost love. He longs
> for the intervention of accidental chance, with all its potential for
> disaster, and from which only love can offer hope of escaping the
> inevitable.
>
> DNA is also represented by the shape of the double integral, or two
> spoons, or two sleeping lovers, but that hasn't been discovered yet in
> Slothrop's time. So, any further, triple or "secret integration"
> incorporating that knowledge into the meaning of this passage, must come
> from the work of the readers. In that sense, "They" might become "We,"in
> the passage cited. I.e., Slothrop's fate is up to us: Would "we" ever (in
> our separate imaginations) agree to let him and Katje live like that? If
> only for this brief interlude- picture it in our minds?
>
> I don't suppose all that helps you much with your translational dilemma,
> but it's the shortest way I can describe what I think the he is up to with
> the three "evens."
>
>
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> To: Pynchon Mailing List pynchon-l at waste.org
> Sent: Fri, May 10, 2013 5:53 pm
> Subject: GR translation: even lost as he might feel again
>
>  P307.11-17  Double integral is also the shape of lovers curled asleep,
> which is where Slothrop wishes he were now—all the way back with Katje,
> even lost as he might feel again, even more vulnerable than now—even
> (because he still honestly misses her), preserved by accident, in ways he
> can’t help seeing, accident whose own much colder honesty each lover has
> only the other to protect him from. . . . Could he live like that? Would
> They ever agree to let him and Katje live like that?
>  I am a little bit confused by this sentence, particularly about the use
> of the word "even" here.   It seems a bit unusual.  Also, is the second
> "even" used in the same way as the first?  What about the third?  It seems
> I need a translation before the translation.  Hmm...
>
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