M ampersand D Duck Read

[kelber at mindspring.com]

-----Original Message-----
>From: Elisabeth Romberg <eromberg at mac.com>
>Sent: Jan 4, 2015 2:32 PM
I don't know which I love more - the Norwegian implications of Ampersand (doesn't matter whether Pynchon knew of it - WE know it now!) or the fact that there's a separate word for mad duck. Thanks, Elisabeth!

Laura

>To: Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: M ampersand D Duck Read
>
>Like you said Thomas, much is made of their differences! Like them being Northern and Southern (English). Very different cultures, and knowingly so. Jokingly so. Caricaturish? London like a country to itself (which The City of London actually is), and The North: mores and dales, fairs and faries, old magic…! Only because I once lived in North Yorkshire near Scarborough (where Dixon is from?), was I able to grasp Dixons Northern accent and character when I read the book in 99(?) So, because being Norwegian (my English sadly deteriorating), I always wondered: TP must have stayed in England over a longer period of time doing research to have got under the skin/language/culture/dress/history whatever, but most importantly the sense of humor a language or an accent contains? …of the two very different cultures the two characters embodies? 
>Uhm, …like Yin&Yang? 
>I’d like to add that to me M&D is not only an "American novel" but also an «English» one, which in some way or another the cover coveys, but this is a personal association of course.
>
>Also my first association to the name of this thread was 'Anders And' (Donald Duck in Danish). ‘And' meaning 'duck' in Scandinavian languages. Then I thought it said ampersand, as in an amper (mad) duck. All this was very fitting I thought, very clever, and way over my head of course, but then I realised what you were Actually discussing...
>
>A bit of a ramble, quite embarrassing, but I might as well get stuck in, or else I get too worried about saying something good to the point where I don't say anything.
>
>Cheers for all your input so far, and we haven’t even started yet! Brilliant!
>Elisabeth

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