BEER Ch. 6, 53-57: knotting into March Kelleher

[jochen stremmel]

I think you are right, Monte. Pynchon's use of "legend" here is in the
sense saga, lore, myth, not like Le Carré's usage, which might not be
MI6 argot but a Germanism, "Legende" in the sense of cover story for a
spy. I didn't look it up again in his books.

And Thomas is right, of course, with the "Schlageter" quote.
Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry offers two translation of the
original German: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Johst. And tells
that March is not alone with her misattribution to Goering.



2013/10/28 Monte Davis <montedavis at verizon.net>:
> TE> Having just read some of Le Carré's novels, I find this reading of
> 'legend' quite convincing. This would suggest that hashslingerz is a CIA
> front, no?
>
> It's a tenuous association: I take Le Carre's usage to be MI6 argot, but (1)
> don't remember seeing "legend" used that way in espionage fiction by others;
> (2) don't know that TRP has read JLC, his peer in paranoia and
> hustle/counter-hustle; and (3) don't often see Maxine as thinking spy-wise
> rather than PI-wise. (Of course, one could debate whether that sentence
> speaks for Maxine or the narrator over her shoulder.)
>
> In any event, there are plenty of more compelling links between Gabriel Ice
> and the Permanent Government. This one's quite possibly my illusion of
> connectedness, but I'm happy to share...
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
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