Beyond the zero

[Doc Sportello]

Thanks Alice. I've resolved to read it like I do most any other novel, as
you suggested, with a dictionary and Wikipedia handy. I went to the library
yesterday to find the Weisenburger book but the only copy is at the central
library, downtown, and I hate going downtown, especially in the rain.

Coming back from the library I thought, "i could have spent all that time
actually reading the book"
On Mar 1, 2014 5:53 AM, "alice malice" <alicewmalice at gmail.com> wrote:

> Not sure what Companion you are looking for. There are several. You
> can access most of these, online, free, and a decent library will
> usually have copies, or, through library loan, get whatever you want.
> You could, of course, buy them used or new.  You might try the
> Pynchon-Notes too.
>
> A Companion's Companion:
> Illustrated Additions and Corrections to Steven Weisenburger's
> A Gravity's Rainbow Companion
>
> Donald F. Larsson
> Department of English, Minnesota State University, Mankato
>
>
> http://english2.mnsu.edu/larsson/grnotes.html
>
> Pynchon Wiki: Gravity's Rainbow
>
>
>
> http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
>
> I like Fowler.
>
> Another great Online Source:
>
> http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_gr.html
>
> I wouldn't mind an annotated GR. That would be nice. The companions,
> like J. Kerry Grant's very useful Companions, are not companions
> really, but compilations of critical approaches, or full length
> critical readings. As Pynchon was once the absolute darling of the
> academic madness that infected the academy and exhausted itself only
> recently,so much that calls itself a companion is hobby-horse.
>
> A good Dictionary, Wikipedia, these are far more useful to a first
> time reader. These, and of course, skill at reading imaginative
> literature. Something that is so often discounted by so many absurd
> mathematical and scientific readings of Pynchon.
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 5:14 PM, Doc Sportello <coolwithdoc at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > The first thing I thought of was the archer from Bleeding Edge and that
> area
> > between coded and codeless. That's something I missed out on by not
> reading
> > Gravity's Rainbow first.
> >
> > Another theme I've picked up on so far is this idea of a sort of
> collective
> > power being a product of anarchy (I'm sure there's a better way to put
> > that). The perfect bananas growing out of that disgusting compost and
> > Slothrop and his messy desk. The evacuees being ushered out by mute
> guards
> > in the dark reminded me of the funnel-like killing floors from ATD.
> >
> > I'm enjoying the book so far. I wish I had a copy of that companion but I
> > figure since people were hittin' it raw in the 70's I can too. I can go
> back
> > and read all the analyses when I'm done with the book. At least I have
> you
> > guys to talk to about it.
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 5:31 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> So wonderfully brilliant of Pynchon to have it mean both infinity and
> >> negative infinity. That Empsonian "ambiguity" even here...and maybe a
> >> connective link w negative numbers in ATD?
> >>
> >> Sent from my iPhone
> >>
> >> On Feb 28, 2014, at 8:20 AM, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> > If you could get up high enough in the sky, then you'd see that some
> >> > rainbows continue below the horizon. That's because when the sun and
> >> > rain combine to make a rainbow, they really make a full-circle
> >> > rainbow. We can't see all of the circle, because the horizon blocks it
> >> > from our view. Pilots high in the sky do sometimes report seeing
> >> > genuine full-circle rainbows.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-optical-illusions.htm
> >> >
> >> > On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 2:17 AM, Doc Sportello <coolwithdoc at gmail.com
> >
> >> > wrote:
> >> >> I was just thinking of an upside down parabola that comes from
> negative
> >> >> inf
> >> >> on x and y whose vertex has a pos y value and therefore 2 roots so
> >> >> "beyond
> >> >> the zero" is infinity. You could also say negative infinity. In real
> >> >> life
> >> >> rockets go up and down in a parabola but they start and end at the
> >> >> surface
> >> >> of the earth. If you fire a rocket with a sufficient angle and speed
> >> >> then,
> >> >> like pirate and the gang from the beginning of the book, you won't
> hear
> >> >> an
> >> >> explosion because it would be falling indefinitely. Not that that's
> >> >> what's
> >> >> going on in the book.
> >> >>
> >> >> I should probably finish it first then think about all this
> >> >>
> >> >> On Feb 27, 2014 8:57 PM, "David Morris" <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >>>
> >> >>> You already knew the answer, of course. But remember the graph as it
> >> >>> continues on and on beyond the zero, over and over.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> On Thursday, February 27, 2014, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> >> >>> wrote:
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> If the zero is the x horizon, and the trajectory starts at zero,
> when
> >> >>>> the
> >> >>>> path returns to zero, where does the math take it next?  The answer
> >> >>>> should
> >> >>>> be obvious.
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> David Morris
> >> >>>>
> >> >>>> On Thursday, February 27, 2014, Doc Sportello <
> coolwithdoc at gmail.com>
> >> >>>> wrote:
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>> I'm only 20 pages in but I wanted to let it be known that I've
> >> >>>>> begun,
> >> >>>>> which is not to say I'll finish, GR. I've been told that the
> title,
> >> >>>>> among
> >> >>>>> countless other things, alludes to the trajectory of a rocket and
> >> >>>>> the novel
> >> >>>>> itself. The "Beyond the Zero" epigraph to me invokes a graph of a
> >> >>>>> negative
> >> >>>>> parabola that has two roots or zeros (I have a bachelors in
> Applied
> >> >>>>> Math but
> >> >>>>> you don't need one to solve a polynomial). Anyway the von Braun
> >> >>>>> quote brings
> >> >>>>> up the fact that the parabola doesn't end at the zeros but goes on
> >> >>>>> to
> >> >>>>> infinity and it reminded me of Saturn via Keats "There is no death
> >> >>>>> in all
> >> >>>>> the universe"
> >> >>>>>
> >> >>>>> Anyhooz I'm sure you all have discussed it to death (there is no
> >> >>>>> death...) but to keep myself motivated I'll update you as I move
> >> >>>>> along
> >> > -
> >> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> >> -
> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >
> >
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
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