GR translation: have been faces of children out the train windows

David Morris fqmorris at gmail.com
Wed Sep 2 20:00:07 CDT 2015


As usual for Pynchon, the sentence is constructed in a much more complex
way. The faces noun and the verb aren't related by proximity.  I will try
to construct its relational parts, as I see it, tomorrow. The "have been"
includes all of his associations with the detritus of the preterite.
Pynchon's can often be parsed, but often in labrynthian ways.

David Morris

On Sunday, August 30, 2015, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:

> This actually confuses me more, David.  I was trying to figure out the
> "have been" in "have been faces of children out the train windows".
>
> On Sun, Aug 30, 2015 at 9:24 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','fqmorris at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>
>> All of the detritus "have been," " in each,  an entry in a record, a
>> history: his own, his winter’s, his country’s "
>>
>>
>> On Sunday, August 30, 2015, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com
>> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>>
>>> V626.3-15   . . . picking up rusted beer cans, rubbers yellow with
>>> preterite seed, Kleenex wadded to brain shapes hiding preterite snot,
>>> preterite tears, newspapers, broken glass, pieces of automobile, days when
>>> in superstition and fright he could make it all fit, seeing clearly in each
>>> an entry in a record, a history: his own, his winter’s, his country’s . . .
>>> instructing him, dunce and drifter, in ways deeper than he can explain,
>>> have been faces of children out the train windows, two bars of dance music
>>> somewhere, in some other street at night, needles and branches of a pine
>>> tree shaken clear and luminous against night clouds, one circuit diagram
>>> out of hundreds in a smudged yellowing sheaf, laughter out of a cornfield
>>> in the early morning as he was walking to school, the idling of a
>>> motorcycle at one dusk-heavy hour of the summer . . .
>>>
>>> How does "have been" fit into the overall structure of the sentence?
>>>
>>> I understand that it must be inverted.  is it something like this:
>>>
>>> faces of children out the train windows etc. have been instructing him
>>> in ways deeper than he can explain
>>>
>>> or something else entirely?
>>>
>>>
>
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