Parse

[Mitch Nisonoffm]

It makes more sense to parse this long sentence this way:
... certain trestles of blackened wood have moved slowly by overhead ...  [and] of maturing rust, developing through those emptying days brilliant and deep, especially at dawn, with blue shadows to seal its passage, to try to bring events to Absolute Zero . . . 


 What is this "coral-like and mysteriously vital growth"? What is "developing through those emptying days brilliant and deep"? Is it the rust? Why are the days "emptying", and yet "brilliant and

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 7, 2013, at 11:00 PM, Steve Maas <tyronemullet at hotmail.com> wrote:

> It seems to me that in "to seal its passage," "its" refers to the carriage. I would read "developing " to refer to the smells, including the distinctive smell of rust. "Blue shadows" - hmmm, maybe simply poetic license?
>  
> Steve Maas
>  
>  
> From: jonfpost at gmail.com
> Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2013 20:53:38 -0500
> Subject: GR p.4 "with blue shadows to seal its passage"
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> 
> I'm attempting a very close rereading of GR and have already come upon a puzzling knot that has stumped me: in the long sentence at the top of p. 4, I'm not sure how to interpret "...maturing rust, developing through those emptying days brilliant and deep, especially at dawn, with blue shadows to seal its passage, to try to bring events to Absolute Zero ..." 
> 
> --What is "developing"? the various smells or the rust?
> --What does the "its" in "it's passage" refer to? the dawn? the development of the rust? 
> --And so, what are the "blue shadows"?
> 
> -J
> 
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