smoke-puffs - definition and meaning

[Rev'd Seventy-Six]

I always read it as military insignia connoting an ordnance division, i.e.:
http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/ImageProxy.ashx?n=1&t=150&id=13080

or:
http://www.usarmypatches.com/Collect/Ordnance/Ord%20Bde%20%20%2059-a%20.gif


On Sun, May 19, 2013 at 10:43 PM, Mike Jing
<gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>wrote:

> Well, Slothrop heard "Sounds of carousing, of voices distinctly
> unbalanced, come welling up, reverberating off of the concrete."  There was
> no mention of gunfire of any kind.  If there was gunfire, Slothrop probably
> would not want to go down there.  There was some gunfire later, when he was
> chased, but that was a different story.
>
>
> On Sun, May 19, 2013 at 9:45 PM, Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
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