GR translation: as little finger sweat-cams off M-1 operating handle

[Monte Davis]

I'm 99% certain I had never seen "cam" used as a verb before reading that
line 42 years ago. i had (have) barely enough mechanical savvy to grasp
that a cam (n.) is shaped to turn rotating or linear motion of one part
into a specific path for another. I certainly had no image at all of an M-1
rifle mechanism opened for inspection.

But I had tinkered with things that required several fingers to hold
several parts in place at once.  Spring-loaded parts had occasionally
snapped down on a fingertip. And sweaty fingers slip on oiled metal. Until
you asked, I didn't wonder how I'd understood that line without pausing.
Language, the brain, and Pynchon dancing at their best.

Now, "bags of chuckling glass"... *that* gives me trouble.

On Sun, Mar 1, 2015 at 1:20 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> V584.5-19   If Katspiel had enough energy to leave the sun’s field
> forever, then it has left these kind round beings in eternal exile, with no
> chance of ever being gathered back home, doomed to masquerade as ball
> bearings, as steelies in a thousand marble games—to know the great thumbs
> of Keokuk and Puyallup, Oyster Bay, Inglewood—Danny D’Allesandro and Elmer
> Ferguson, Peewee Brennan and Flash Womack . . . where are they now? where
> do you think? they all got drafted, some are dead on Iwo, some gangrenous
> in the snow in the forest of Arden, and their thumbs, first rifle
> inspection in Basic, GI’d, driven deep back into childhood as little finger
> sweat-cams off M-1 operating handle, thumb pushing down follower still deep
> in breech, bolt sshhOCK! whacks thumb oh shit yes it hurts and good-by to
> another unbeatable and legendary thumb, gone for good back to the summer
> dust, bags of chuckling glass, bigfooted basset hounds, smell of steel
> playground slides heating in the sun),
>
> What does "sweat-cams" mean?
>
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