slothrop, Bianca // ramblings in response

Sun Nov 3 07:55:50 CST 2013

On Sunday, November 3, 2013, Michael Bailey wrote:
>
> "Oh, dear," lifting her dress, turning so she can also watch Slothrop back
> over a shoulder. "I can still feel that. Did she leave marks?"
> "Well, you'll have to come closer."
> She moves toward him, smiling, pointing toes each step. "I watched you
> sleep. You're very pretty, you know. Mother also said you're cruel."
> "Watch this." He leans to bite her gently on one cheek of her ass. She
> squirms, but doesn't move away.
>
> - so, umm, that sort of manufactures consent...I guess...in a dream
>

Bianca seduces, so this is more than consent.

Now something, oh, kind of funny happens here. Not that Slothrop is really
> aware of it now, while it's going on-but later on, it will occur to him
> that he was-this may sound odd, but he was somehow, actually, well, inside
> his own cock. If you can imagine such a thing. Yes, inside the metropolitan
> organ entirely, all other colonial tissue forgotten and left to fend for
> itself, his arms and legs it seems woven among vessels and ducts, his sperm
> roaring louder and louder, getting ready to erupt, somewhere below his
> feet… maroon and evening cuntlight reaches him in a single ray through the
> opening at the top, refracted through the clear juices flowing up around
> him. He is en-closed. Everything is about to come, come incredibly, and
> he's helpless here in this exploding emprise… red flesh echoing… an
> extraordinary sense of waiting to rise…
>

In a meditative state focusing on body sensations, one can feel heightened
intensity where sensations almost take control.  This might reach the point
of feeling being inside a part of ones body.  But more to the point here is
Slothrup pre shadowing ? encased in the Rocket about to be launched.

- continuing the conceit of being inside his penis
>
> Announcing the void, what could it be but the kingly voice of the Aggregat
> itself?
>
> - the Aggregat is what, again?  The gemeinschaft, the being-in-common?  Or
> the life force itself, her young nubility catalyzing a concentration so
> intense as to link him up with an oversoul?
>
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha

In Buddhist <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism>
phenomenology<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_(philosophy)>
 and soteriology <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soteriology>, the *skandhas*
 (Sanskrit <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit>) or
*khandhas*(Pāḷi<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%81%E1%B8%B7i>
), *aggregates* in English, are the five functions or aspects that
constitute the sentient being.The sutras describe five
aggregates:[d]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-8>

   1. *"form" <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C5%ABpa>* or
*"matter"*[e]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-9> (Skt.,
   Pāli *rūpa <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C5%ABpa>*; Tib. *gzugs*):
   external and internal matter. Externally, *rupa* is the physical world.
   Internally, *rupa* includes the material body and the physical sense
   organs.[f] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-10>
   2. *"sensation" <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedan%C4%81>* or
   *"feeling"* (Skt., Pāli *vedanā
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedan%C4%81>*; Tib. *tshor-ba*): sensing
   an object[g] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-11> as
   either pleasant or unpleasant or
neutral.[h]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-12>
   [i] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-13>
   3. *"perception" <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%C3%B1%C3%B1%C4%81>*,
   *"conception"*, *"apperception"*, *"cognition"*, or *"discrimination"*
    (Skt. *samjñā*, Pāli *saññā
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%C3%B1%C3%B1%C4%81>*, Tib. *'du-shes*):
   registers whether an object is recognized or not (for instance, the sound
   of a bell or the shape of a tree).
   4. *"mental formations"
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%85kh%C4%81ra>*, *"impulses"*,
   *"volition"*, or *"compositional factors"* (Skt. *samskāra*, Pāli *saṅkhāra
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%85kh%C4%81ra>*, Tib. *'du-byed*):
   all types of mental habits, thoughts, ideas, opinions, prejudices,
   compulsions, and decisions triggered by an
object.[j]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-14>
   5. *"consciousness"
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi%C3%B1%C3%B1%C4%81%E1%B9%87a>* or
   *"discernment"*[k] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-15>
    (Skt. *vijñāna*, Pāli *viññāṇa <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijnana>*,
   [l] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-16> Tib.
   *rnam-par-shes-pa*):
      1. *In the Nikayas <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikayas>/Āgamas
      <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%80gama_(Buddhism)>:*
cognizance,[5]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-17>
      [m] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-18> that which
      discerns[6]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-19>[n]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-20>
      2. *In the Abhidhamma <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abhidhamma>:* a
      series of rapidly changing interconnected discrete acts of cognizance.
      [o] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-21>
      3. *In some Mahayana <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana>
sources:* the
      base that supports all
experience.[p]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-22>

The Buddhist literature describes the aggregates as arising in a linear or
progressive fashion, from form to feeling to perception to mental
formations to consciousness.[q]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-23>
In
the early texts, the scheme of the five aggregates is not meant to be an
exhaustive classification of the sentient being. Rather it describes
various aspects of the way an individual
manifests.[7]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skandha#cite_note-24>

-–-------

So if Buddhism applies here, the Aggregat might be the accumulative total
of Slothrup's experiential being. The word Aggregate means a gathering
together of parts.  Thus the Aggrgat, singular, might mean the bundling
into one of the 5 aggregates.

The parts being gathered into bigger wholes for each of the aggrgates are
the inputs of the 6 senses. Buddism adds the mind to the list of senses.

–----------

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatana

*Āyatana* (Pāli <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C4%81li>;
Sanskrit<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit>)
is a Buddhist <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism> term that has been
translated as "sense base", "sense-media" or "sense
sphere."[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatana#cite_note-1> In
Buddhism, there are six *internal* sense bases (Pali: *ajjhattikāni
āyatanāni*; also known as, "organs", "gates", "doors", "powers" or "roots"
[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatana#cite_note-pine102-2>) and six
*external* sense bases (*bāhirāni āyatanāni* or "sense objects"; also known
as *vishaya* or
"domains"[3]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatana#cite_note-pine103-3>).
Thus, there are six internal-external (organ-object) pairs of sense bases:
[4] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatana#cite_note-4>

   - eye and visible objects <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupa_(Buddhism)>
   [5] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatana#cite_note-5>
   - ear and sound
   - nose and odor
   - tongue and taste
   - body and touch
   - mind[6] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatana#cite_note-mano-6> and mental
   objects <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma_(Buddhism)>[7]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatana#cite_note-7>

Buddhism and other Indian
epistemologies[8]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatana#cite_note-8>
[9] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayatana#cite_note-pine101-9> identify six
"senses" as opposed to the Western identification of five. In Buddhism,
"mind" denotes an internal sense organ which interacts with sense objects
that include sense impressions <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phassa>,
feelings <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedana>,
perceptions<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%C3%B1%C3%B1a>
 and volition <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%85kh%C4%81ra>.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20131103/89081948/attachment.html>