smoke-puffs - definition and meaning

[Mike Jing]

Right.  But if they were real, shots must have just been fired, a lot of
them even, which does not seem to be the case here.


On Sun, May 19, 2013 at 6:11 PM, Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Maybe. But to me then they wouldn't be Ordnance smoke-puffs....
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On May 19, 2013, at 5:53 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> 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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