M& D Deep Ducking. Latitudes and Departures

[John Bailey]

M Thomas Stevenson made some remarks about the section title, too.
Worth looking back on.

Alice M's correlation of Departures with death is one of those reasons
I stick with this crazy list (although she needs a new moniker - the
list has grown, Alice, evolve with it!) The Departures/death thing is
so obvious and yet so overlooked.

What's the opposite? Longitudes and Arrivals. Heading north/south and
finding life. Flying so high you find yourself in a whole new realm,
like the Chums of Chance ascending to the point where it becomes
descent into a new world. Finding a Vheissu monkey at the North Pole.
M&D's (later) trip to the polar hole that leads to the Hollow Earth.

Travelling equatorially in Pynchon's novels in different - Zoyd's
Hawaiian misery and confusing sub-UFO encounter, the M&D's vista (as
melancholy a trip as you can get, unless you love seeing all magic
leeched from the world). The Duck, the Duck. There's a reason it
follows the sun, rather than flying at the speed of light over and
under the planet, surely?

The fact of latitude is one of eternal return, while the myth of north
and south (which can be flipped if you want) is one of change and
escape.

I'm just making this up though.




On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 9:47 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> Alice's remark on Departures as deaths reminded me that we did not riff on
> Latitudes and Departures. A change-up from the expected Latitudes and
> Longitudes.
>
> I skipped right over, mentally. Alice's association with Departures.
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l