Parse

[alice wellintown]

Speaking of old men, the post from the archived discussion of Jing's
inquiry for translation purposes includes one post from Paul. Have not
heard from the old sage in some time. Anyone? Paul notes that the
passage under close reading reveals a major Pynchon theme, that is,
what or who or whom is passed over, passed under, the tangle of lines
(M&D) of history into the knotted poorer spurs, here, where, the force
of life, somehow mysteriously, coral-like, and in partnership, though
with no real plan or agreement, with the rusting, only seems to be
directed toward an absolute, toward absolute zero, but, of course,
it's only a dream, only a theater.

To close read requires this kind of approach, that is, that one knows
the theme here, from a complete reading of the work. So, a re-reading,
and of course, a groups reading is helpful to the law of diminishng
returns, is needed to unlock so much that nhas been packed inot the
opening pages of this masterwork. So, dozens of P-schoalrs have had a
go at the opening. A good idea, as P has done something quite
conventional here and packed  as much inot this opening as he can fit.
So coal tar seems worth looking into here. Also, the iron. Lots more
we've sent to the glue factory after beating to death.

I always thought that P had lifted much of this from Mumford, but of
course, he says he didn't, so....and his research on subways, London,
New York, his knowledge of what is going on under the Street is mixed
in here with his knowledge of science. So the dream here is, as is GR
generally, a poetic prose that is written over the historical
encyclopedia. P often writes sentences that would earn him an F in a
grammar class. It's often difficult and sometimes impossible to parse,
to figure out the simplest subject predicate of his longer sentences.
This may be marked a brilliant ambiguity in GR. Not something that
makes A close reading possible, but makes close ReadingS a joy. The
P-List can bring that. But only rarely now.

PS I'm Just an old time Bitch, so what do I know.

PSPS Did enjoy those rambling footnotes Nabokovian from the Master MB

On 9/8/13, Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> '' deep reading' makes us smarter and nicer, sez science.
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Sep 8, 2013, at 1:20 AM, Mitch Nisonoffm <mitchnis at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Pynchon is a careful writer and GR starts off with grammatical exactitude,
>> and perhaps especially in his longer Proustian sentences.  I found that
>> careful grammatical parsing, and not quick (re)readings, reveals meaning.
>> Let me posit that the other old timers can have their fun elaborations;
>> real fun and enlightenment comes to those of us old timers who look to
>> discern this writer's singular intent and not the multitudes of readers'
>> quick and easy takeaways.
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>> On Sep 8, 2013, at 12:09 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Thank, Mitch, for supporting my longstanding posit that parsing GR is a
>>> worthy endeavor.  Other old timers have disagreed.
>>>
>>> On Saturday, September 7, 2013, Mitch Nisonoffm wrote:
>>>> 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 iPa
>>>>
>>>> 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 hat  "developing " to refer to the smells, including
>>>>> the distinctive smell of rust. "Blue shadows" - hmmm, maybe simply
>>>>> poetic license?
>>>>>   Nte
>>>>> Steve Maasnd
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 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
>