smoke-puffs - definition and meaning

[Mike Jing]

It has just occurred to me that it could be the "beer fumes" from the beers
they are holding, puffs of water vapour that looks like smoke.


On Sun, May 19, 2013 at 5:36 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>wrote:

> Thanks for taking the time to respond. That certainly is an interesting
> argument.  And I don't pretend to understand Pynchon better than anybody
> here, or anywhere, for that matter.  That's why I was asking in the first
> place.  In any case, this further complicates things.
>
> So are you suggesting these are actual puffs of smoke from weapons
> discharge, or some metaphorical smoke-puffs acquired through the handling
> of ordnance?  Or something else entirely that I am not aware of?
>
>
>
> On Sun, May 19, 2013 at 10:16 AM, Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Actually, bored from my work editing, I am taking a break to pile on
>> despite the estimable opinions of others, including yourself.
>>
>> I think that thinking of so,etching involving insignias is what occurs to
>> many--most--readers in this scene. It is the word " sleeve" perhaps...
>>
>> But then read it again and, maybe, yet again. Think of Pynchon's verbal
>> precision, in all his work
>> (Except, even I, great fanboy, will admit it flags  a bit in Against the
>> Day) but especially think of the precision of every word in Gravity's
>>  Rainbow.
>>
>> Ask yourself, Why, why would Pynchon, with military and weapons use
>> meanings to the wonderfully compressed phrase Ordnance smoke-puffs be
>> vaguely---that is key here; you said yourself you could find nothing as
>> symbol, especially over a couple armies that " smoke puffs
>> Might refer to symbolically. Pynchon, like Shakespeare---learned to be
>> precise with every perspective and metaphor.
>>
>> And I ask further, from someone who knows almost nothing about military
>> insignia---purposely
>> Rejected that romanticising of war---( and I'm not even going to
>> Wikipedia for this) ---but aren't they, one cannot help learning, full of
>> bars, lines, angles, Predator birds like Eagles, stars, etc...
>> All of that angled linearity which Pynchon knows shows the narrowing of
>> the curved, wavy, modulating, human folkways. such as natural boundaries,
>> human-made paths and, in some natural way the curls of smoke?
>>
>> anyway, I will bet there are almost no symbols on soldiers' uniforms much
>> like " smoke-puffs""
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>> On May 19, 2013, at 3:50 AM, Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> Well, seems clear to me that many/ most are all also the same kind of
>> flickering smoke from military discharges....see esp My Early
>> Life...shrapnel, etc...
>>
>> I think your logical concern that there are all kind of different
>> insignia coupled with the impossibility of them all flickering, to me rules
>>  out that meaning.
>>
>> So, I'll stop.
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>> On May 19, 2013, at 1:40 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Well, I did see those.  But it seems clear to me that Pychon is not
>> talking about the same thing as the others.
>>
>>
>> On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 9:27 PM, Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>> See some examples here...
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>
>>> Begin forwarded message:
>>>
>>>  *From:* Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>>> *Date:* May 18, 2013, 9:24:03 PM EDT
>>> *To:* Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>>> *Subject:* *smoke-puffs - definition and meaning*
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.wordnik.com/words/smoke-puffs
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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