M&D Chapter 12 - pages 118-119

alice malice alicewmalice at gmail.com
Mon Mar 2 04:50:03 CST 2015 

A wonderful read, thank you.



On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 2:05 AM, Heikki R
<situations.journeys.comedy at gmail.com> wrote:
> Heh,
>
> thanks, Alice. I wouldn't advise anyone to read this piece I wrote 21 years
> ago. Anyway, should someone really want to take a look at it, here's a
> formally enhanced version:
>
> http://pmc.iath.virginia.edu/text-only/issue.197/raudaskoski.197
>
> (I dimly recall that I made some changes to the content too. Have mercy on
> the young me, guys. I don't think I was interested in genre theory per se.
> Rather, in the Bakhtinian sense, "epic" vs. "novelistic" thrusts within GR.
> And: what should have been "American Tragedy" turned out as "American Dream"
> in the article... Believe me, I *was* thinking of the former when I wrote
> it.)
>
>
> Heikki
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 2:04 AM, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> So, we might use theory to read GR. Doing so doesn't prove anything.
>> Theory is not proof. But it will certainly provide a method of
>> analysis that will, while limiting in some respects, enhance our
>> reading of GR.
>>
>> For example,
>>
>> "The Feathery Rilke Mustaches and Porky Pig Tattoo on Stomach": High
>> and Low Pressures inGravity's Rainbow
>>
>>
>> Heikki Raudaskoski, University of Oulu, Finland
>>
>>
>>  http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/gr/finnished.html
>>
>> On Sun, Mar 1, 2015 at 6:56 PM, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Genre is theory and like all theory it does not limit the truths we
>> > may discover in the reading of a book or in all of nature. So, genre
>> > theory doesn't limit the truths we may discover.
>> >
>> > But genre theory, and all theory, is conscious of its limitations, and
>> > it is in this awareness of its inadequacies that theory helps us
>> > attain a truth in a particular discipline or from a particular
>> > perspective.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On Sun, Mar 1, 2015 at 4:59 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >> You and Alice and some critics want to place novels in labeled
>> >> bookstore
>> >> shelves, by category.  I understand that as a vehicle for discussion
>> >> and
>> >> comparison.  I think GR's expanse of genre referencing actively fights
>> >> that
>> >> kind of book shelving.
>> >>
>> >> David Morris
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Sunday, March 1, 2015, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> Becky writes:
>> >>>
>> >>> Maskelyne likens St. Helena to a gothic novel and says:
>> >>> "Six months I've been here - too many idle Minutes soon pile up,
>> >>> topple and overwhelm the Healthiest Mind."
>> >>>
>> >>> Maskelyne, man of science, repeats a cultural attitude more prevalent
>> >>> among Protestants than Catholics
>> >>> sez a Google Books search and paralleling Weber's insights it says
>> >>> elsewhere.
>> >>>
>> >>> And, of course, the Gothic strain of fiction, this upcoming fiction
>> >>> within the fiction, is a current of fearful fiction,
>> >>> anxiety-filled (and cathartic thereby?) fiction and, even Horror
>> >>> fiction. It might be seen as the demonic undertow
>> >>> of fiction, the underground answer to the overground novel of manners
>> >>> and society.
>> >>>
>> >>>  Austen, soon a genius of the latter, has her protagonist in the early
>> >>> Northanger Abbey get overwrought almost hysterically at times with her
>> >>> Gothic novel reading.
>> >>>
>> >>> The Gothic strain is the anti-optimism strain. The Gothic strain is
>> >>> the Cassandra strain. Gothic is the downward pull
>> >>> to scientific and societal 'inevitable progress. The Gothic strain is
>> >>> the Return of the Repressed strain.
>> >>>
>> >>> Gravity's Rainbow is Gothic.
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>> On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 12:27 PM, Becky Lindroos <bekker2 at icloud.com>
>> >>> wrote:
>> >>> > Another day,  another couple pages:
>> >>> >
>> >>> > Maskalyne likens St. Helena to a gothic novel and says
>> >>> >
>> >>> > "Six months I've been here - too many idle Minutes soon pile up,
>> >>> > topple
>> >>> > and overwhelm the Healthiest Mind."
>> >>> >
>> >>> > (A little foreshadowing there? -  Suspicions that Mason might go
>> >>> > completely mad?  Pynchon doesn't really go in for a lot of
>> >>> > foreshadowing to
>> >>> > keep up suspense or whatever - just as well,  it would take the
>> >>> > whole thing
>> >>> > overboard, overdone, too much.)
>> >>> >
>> >>> > ** "Sirius Business," cackles the Proprietor. -  another groaner
>> >>> > gag.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > This novel has some very serious themes, but told with a LOT of
>> >>> > humor -
>> >>> > not just humor to lighten the atmosphere -there's actually a comic
>> >>> > tone.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > "But I also noticed that the book's  (M&D's) humor was more
>> >>> > thoroughly
>> >>> > interwoven with melancholy and a sense of mortality than ever before
>> >>> > in
>> >>> > Pynchon's work."
>> >>> >
>> >>> > http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1/essays/pynchon/mason.html
>> >>> >
>> >>> > "Mason & Dixon represents an impulse to write history through the
>> >>> > imaginary field, to crosshatch its narrative with a realization of
>> >>> > culture's
>> >>> > desire to find its identity in the realm of the imagination. It thus
>> >>> > argues,
>> >>> > implicitly, for the importance of artistic imagination alongside
>> >>> > scientific
>> >>> > and historical work. Pynchon rejects the harsh realism and more
>> >>> > cynical
>> >>> > parodies employed by many contemporary authors, using HUMOR (my
>> >>> > caps)  and
>> >>> > even magic as modes of transformation.[17] Talking dogs, sexually
>> >>> > aroused
>> >>> > mechanical ducks, and nighttime apparitions and ghosts haunt Mason
>> >>> > and Dixon
>> >>> > in America; perhaps the country that combines technical invention
>> >>> > with
>> >>> > capitalistic enterprise might be equallymythologic in Pynchon's
>> >>> > ambivalent
>> >>> > history."
>> >>> > http://pmc.iath.virginia.edu/issue.903/14.1burns.html
>> >>> >
>> >>> > Thoughts on the humor and how it adds to the mix of history, themes,
>> >>> > story, whatever -  do you laugh? Why?
>> >>> >
>> >>> > **********
>> >>> > And then, ta-da - it's Maskelyne's birthday - (which would tell us
>> >>> > it's
>> >>> > October 6, 1761 and that he's 29 years old - born Oct. 1732) and he
>> >>> > makes a
>> >>> > big deal of impending doom (age 30 is coming).
>> >>> >
>> >>> > The phrase "Stygian mists"  is from "To Chloris"  in "Madrigals and
>> >>> > Epigrams" by William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585-1649) Scottish
>> >>> > poet.   a
>> >>> > little chunk of the poem -  http://www.bartleby.com/337/285.html
>> >>> >
>> >>> > Mason:  (but 30 is)  "... a Number divisible,- penetrable! - by 6
>> >>> > numbers!"    (eeks?  why?  - numerology of some kind I guess.)
>> >>> >
>> >>> > ***  Narrator:    "...dismal apostrophes..."    -
>> >>> >  And in this case the word apostrophe means exclamations,  not the
>> >>> > punctuation symbol.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > **** Now Dixon is leaving for South Africa to take care of
>> >>> > Maskelyne's
>> >>> > "Sisson instrument"  which is probably a quadrant of some sort,  a
>> >>> > device
>> >>> > for measuring angles.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Sisson
>> >>> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodolite
>> >>> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrant_(instrument)
>> >>> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mural_instrument
>> >>> >
>> >>> >         If the measurement device is off by a hair - then that
>> >>> > slight
>> >>> > error is multiplied exponentially and Maskelyne has invested more
>> >>> > than time
>> >>> > and his career in the instrument ($$?) .  Dixon is the field rep for
>> >>> > Johnny
>> >>> > Bird's instruments?  -  lol - but ...
>> >>> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bird_(astronomer)
>> >>> >
>> >>> > Why are the various measurements of time and space inaccurate?
>> >>> > Errors
>> >>> > in measurement - 1.  human error - the time of the Transit (because
>> >>> > M&D
>> >>> > started/ stopped at different places) and, 2.  device error (plumb
>> >>> > line
>> >>> > screwed up on quadrant).
>> >>> > **********
>> >>> > Is there really so little on these two pages?    Or is this "so
>> >>> > little?"
>> >>> >
>> >>> > So here's an added little morsel for the Learn'd Dogs amongst us -
>> >>> > James
>> >>> > Wood, in a now "classic" essay soundly criticized Zadie Smith's
>> >>> > White Teeth
>> >>> > for it's "hysterical realism" and lambasted a few others in the
>> >>> > process
>> >>> > (M&D, etc).
>> >>> > http://www.newrepublic.com/article/61361/human-all-too-inhuman
>> >>> >
>> >>> > And this is a rather interesting little Wiki article on the subject:
>> >>> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysterical_realism
>> >>> > (interesting little piece)
>> >>> >
>> >>> > Becky
>> >>> > the humor bit reminded me of hysterical and that took me on the
>> >>> > little
>> >>> > semi-side trip to Wood and Wiki -
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>> >
>> >>> > -
>> >>> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>> >>> -
>> >>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
>
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l

More information about the Pynchon-l mailing list