smoke-puffs - definition and meaning

[Markekohut]

Isn't the phrase the indication that shots, stuff has happened and this is the proof, residue, ongoing diss? I don't have my copy to check more of the scene but P's Impressionism about the scene is what I remember....

Sent from my iPad

On May 19, 2013, at 9:31 PM, Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Ordnance refers to all kinds of military "stuff"....take Morris's bombs as real not insignia....
> I see an image of soldiers with smoke surrounding.....the smoke of war....
> But I dunno....I just can't imagine any ' smoke puffs" that are metaphoric or symbol insignias
> That would work here....
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> On May 19, 2013, at 6:28 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> 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
>> 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20130519/f1535f68/attachment.html>