On "Mindless Pleasures",

[Mark Kohut]

My Latin vocabularly is weak too....this came, without quotation marks, from Nuttall and we 
know Shakespeare had "a little Latin [really a lot] and less Greek" and Willeford, not so sure. 
 
Yours in translation.  

From: jochen stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com>
To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> 
Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2013 10:48 AM
Subject: Re: On "Mindless Pleasures",



thy sheath?

A short poem by Willeford:

The Trooper Died,
And by his side,
They laid a wreath.
He tried to get the button
in the sheath.

Try figure that one out!




2013/5/12 Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>

"O happy dagger, / This is they sheath; there rust and let me die"---Juliet...
>The Latin for sheath is vagina. 
> 
>The more I think on it, the more I think, yes, as Morris wrote,  Slothrop's ego dies; Blicero dies in ecstasy....Pynchon's 'ambiguous' on both edges of meanings with first title? His wont. 
> 
> 
> 
>
>
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>To: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> 
>Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
>Sent: Sunday, May 12, 2013 9:18 AM 
>
>Subject: Re: On "Mindless Pleasures",
>
>
>
>In a book on Shakespeare by A.S. Nuttall, I find this summary of a concept we have explored
>in discussing Pynchon in GR. Perhaps it is the way I can finally see Morris's point, if it is (part of) Morris's 
>point? ....anyway, another possible slant on that alternate title?
> 
>"the internal character of ecstasy seems to oscillate between maximum intensity of experience and an extinction
>of experience. One feels as one has never felt before and at the same time the experiencing mind is blotted out,
>one drops into nothingness. That is why "die' became a slang word for "orgasm". [He sez.] 
> 
>[He adds: " The theme [of love "replacing" sexual  ecstasy] will grow under Shakespeare's hand as he moves from Love's Labour Lost
>to Romeo & Juliet]
>
>
>From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> 
>Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
>Sent: Friday, May 10, 2013 4:50 PM
>Subject: Re: On "Mindless Pleasures",
>
>
>
>Slothrup becomes the Buddha before disappearing. 
>
>
>"Mindless" may be taken to mean something other than a contrast to "mindfulness."  I don't know if that term was even used back then.  "Be here now" was common, but "mindfulness?"
>
>
>Buddhist meditation involves stilling the frantic mind (sometimes called the Monkey Mind) by focusing on what might be called mindless: eg.  the sensation of breathing to the exclusion of all narration.  The goal being to find a place within, still & quiet, from which to let chaos of "thinking" become external, something to observe w/o letting it control one's central being.  "Just Being" as opposed to Thinking.
>
>
>"Mindless" back then might actually mean what is now called (ubiquitously) "Mindfulness."
>
>
>David Morris
>
>On Friday, May 10, 2013, Mark Kohut wrote:
>
>the working title of GR, as we know. Is there anything known,
>>or have we bloviated yet on that possible title, used all the way
>>through submitted manuscript copies to paperback houses
>>to read and bid for paperback rights?
>>
>>What would be the mindless pleasures in GR? All of them? 
>>Everything in it? 
>>
>>And, this occurred to me last evening, prompting this post: maybe
>>this title was a working contrast to the concept of Mindfulness in
>>Buddhist thought? 
>>
>>Anyone, anyone, Bueller? Bueller?
>
>
>
>
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