Mondaugen and his Law

Fri Mar 28 23:43:48 CDT 2014

Jung said something to the effect that most of life is like a rhysome,
functioning below the surface most of the time.

On Friday, March 28, 2014, Michael Bailey <mikebailey at gmx.us> wrote:

> rhizomes (a wry zome would be a twisted structure in Mickey Wolfmann's
> bleeding-edge subdivision, eh?) (<Groan>)
>
> Rhizomes of note around Mondaugen
>
> Mond Augen world eye in German - Itself a complimentary sobriquet.
>
> Kurt, the German form of Curt (a big part of the definition, though
> there's more of course to Kurt than only a recap of Curt, & vice versa, no
> doubt), per crowdsourced w'pedia, unpacketh as
>
> " Curtiss is a common given name and surname of English origin derived
> from the Old French curteis (Modern French courtois) which means "polite,
> courteous, or well-bred"."
>
> This I did not ken, prone as I've been to think of "curt" as brief, brisk,
> brusque!
>
> So "courteous eye of the world" drawn into the maelstrom of, well you
> know, thingie...all that spot of bother -- an eye could become bloodshot
> and need Visine...
>
> I mean it's all very easy to say somebody "shouldn't ought to've", and
> valid to attach opprobrium, but the choice of name - and it is quite a
> choice name! - pollicates toward the notion that Mondaugen has somewhat to
> offer. True, it was co-opted in the service of the villainous. Can we, much
> later (92 yrs after 1922, 70 years after 1944, 59 years after 1955 (though
> Mondaugen mayn't have spilled his guts to Stencil at the Rusty Spoon till
> 1956)) co-opt his acumen in a formulation usable by the good, the virtuous,
> the Pynchonistas?
>
>
> Michael Bailey <mikebailey at gmx.us<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','mikebailey at gmx.us');>>
> wrote:
>>
>> While I don't dispute your point, nor commit completely atm to the
>> consequences of agreeing, not yet being completely sure where I position
>> myself vis a vis personal density, I'd like to reinvest the intellectual
>> capital into the stories...
>>
>> Mondaugen in GR 1945, or earlier, '44 would be symmetrical & give a 2/1
>> ratio of 22 years spent devolving to Nazi mad scientist, over 11 years
>> living through the redemptive defeat of Nazism and then rehabilitation in
>> the Land of Opportunity & free speech (though poor beer) where he can tell
>> his tale of woe unmolested and become part of the conversational mix in
>> Manhattan via Stencil and his dentist/confessor Eigenvalue, all of which
>> IMHO is part of the general theme of demobilization (at least vis a vis the
>> 3rd Reich) in V.
>>
>> In Sudwest 1922 -- young idealistic engineer with gaze and technical
>> appurtenances literally focused on the heavens
>>
>> NYC 1955 (via operation paperclip)
>> described as porcine, maybe as a result of greater personal density
>>
>> Still, without condoning, he strikes me as what my uncle calls a clever
>> potlicker...
>>
>> I mean, to have your option picked up after a very hostile takeover and
>> continue in the same rather competitive field for a 33 year career and
>> counting,
>>
>> And plus be willing to talk with Stencil which implies a degree of
>> whimsicality (in his cups, or steins, of an "abominable imitation of Munich
>> beer," that is)
>> I mean who is Stencil to him or he to Stencil?
>>
>> That said, from a storyological POV, I think it's interesting that Mr
>> Pynchon chooses to underline the concept as "Mondaugen's Law"
>>
>> I mean, I totally agree, David, that it's evil to try to take over time
>> that way...if that is what he means...and certainly by Mondaugen's position
>> when he says it, well consider the source, eh?
>>
>> Yet as even a bad priest can give a valid sacrament, or so I'm told,
>> mightn't there be some truth - I would not say Mr Pynchon is a bad writer,
>> either in point of execution or morality, so Mondaugen and his Law may bear
>> further explication.
>>
>>
>>
>>  David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','fqmorris at gmail.com');>>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Ossification is Personal Density.  It is not a life oriented goal, but
>>> it is a moon/bone world goal. Death World.
>>>
>>> On Thursday, March 27, 2014, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','fqmorris at gmail.com');>>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Think about his Law as a means of colonizing time.  Owning past,
>>>> present and future.  It it impossible, but lots of damage might result
>>>> from the attempt. "Personal Density" isn't a noble goal. It is the opposite
>>>> of receptivity.
>>>>
>>>>  David Morris
>>>>
>>>> On Thursday, March 27, 2014, Michael Bailey <mikebailey at gmx.us<#1450c152880435f3_>>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>  David, that temporal bandwidth passage has always interested me as
>>>>> well.
>>>>>
>>>>> For one thing, as you note, it comes from Mondaugen, looking up for a
>>>>> moment as it were from his technological rapture to deal with a humanistic
>>>>> concern. Speaking with authority and not quoting any scribes
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Or maybe the more narrow/focused your  sense of Now, the less bound
>>>>>> you are to the density of here, like the atoms that are the deeper reality:
>>>>>> density is an illusion.  Free of time, one can move through
>>>>>> the spaces between matter unimpeded. Electron microscope tripping through
>>>>>> space deeper than deep.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  David Morris
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wednesday, March 26, 2014, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  Would you care to expand on what you see as Pynchon's notion of
>>>>>>> temporal bandwidth?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  The following isn't Pynchon speaking, is it?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  "Personal density," Kurt Mondaugen in his Peenemünde office not too
>>>>>>> many steps away from here, enunciating the Law which will one day bear his
>>>>>>> name, "is directly proportional to temporal bandwidth." "Temporalbandwidth,"
>>>>>>> is the width of your present, your now. It is the familiar "[delta-] t"
>>>>>>> considered as a dependent variable. The more you dwell in the past and in
>>>>>>> the future, the thicker your bandwidth, the more solid your
>>>>>>> persona. But the narrower your sense of Now, the more tenuous you are.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -Gravity's Rainbow p. 506
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If someone's bandwidth is zero, maybe that means transcendence of
>>>>>>> the notion of time.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 7:45 AM, Mike Weaver <mike.weaver at zen.co.uk<#1450c152880435f3_145068b7fb227abc_145065462f40ca91_>
>>>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Gotta disagree with this very strongly. I think P challenges the
>>>>>>>> validity of the 'be here now' mentality with his notion of temporal
>>>>>>>> bandwidth. Slothrop's dissolution (Tempbdwth = 0)is the opposite of
>>>>>>>> enlightenment.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com<#1450c152880435f3_145068b7fb227abc_145065462f40ca91_>>
>>>>>>>> wrote :
>>>>>>>> The excluded middle and the middle way are so obviously aligned.
>>>>>>>> Paradox is Pynchon and Zen. Slothrop found the Tao and his dissolving away
>>>>>>>> is a common feat of enlightened masters.  Pynchon made Slothrop into a
>>>>>>>> Buddha. Deal with it.
>>>>>>>> > David MorrisOn Tuesday, March 25, 2014, Markekohut
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>    - Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>>>
>>>>   - Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
> - Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20140328/def18e87/attachment.html>