Chapter 5 Summary

Wed Apr 13 23:03:58 CDT 2016

https://www.apogeerockets.com/technical_publication_16
I'm often asked the question of which fin shape is best for small
competition rockets. What I'm about to tell you about this may shock you.

http://www.nakka-rocketry.net/fins.html
The purpose of putting fins on a rocket is to provide stability during
flight, that is, to allow the rocket to maintain its orientation and
intended flight path. If a typical amateur rocket was launched without
fins, it would soon begin to tumble after leaving the launcher.

On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 11:47 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph-npS29n9Q
>
> On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 10:07 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Control being taken inside is a way to describe the progress of the
>> internal guidance of the rocket.  It is guided internally now, not by
>> external fins that balance thrust against/into lateral winds.  I don't know
>> V-2 science, but I think internal guidance controls were its breakthrough.
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 12:44 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I guess it depends on what you mean by "consciousness."  I was riffing
>>> on "control being taken inside," as opposed to working in conjunction with
>>> nature ("veering into the wind," in this metaphor).  Freeing one's self
>>> from gravity, as well.  Essentially dominating nature as a symptom of an
>>> insecurity, something animals don't suffer from.
>>>
>>> David Morris
>>>
>>> On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 11:02 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I don’t see how consciousness equates to engineering?  As to whether
>>>> engineering is natural, when a bird builds a nest is it natural?
>>>>
>>>> What seems particularly unique to me about human engineering is the
>>>> externalization of memory, the externalization of technologies of recording
>>>> knowledge, information, imagination. Then there is how that feeds into the
>>>> engineering of war and culture.
>>>>
>>>> The question of how Pynchon treats consciousness itself is challenging,
>>>> but we do see in Slothrop a backward momentum away from the modern control
>>>> based culture where he starts.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> > On Apr 13, 2016, at 12:16 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> > In other words, engineering is a control by man that isn't "natural."
>>>> Which implies that consciousness isn't natural. "Natural" would thus mean
>>>> unthoughtness.  Right?
>>>> >
>>>> > On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 11:03 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> > Control by man is engineering.
>>>> >
>>>> > Control over natural forces, especially death, or other "outside"
>>>> forces is taken "inside," engineered, controlled.
>>>> >
>>>> > The Wind is natural spirit. To veer against the wind is the rocket.
>>>> >
>>>> > David Morris
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > On Tuesday, April 12, 2016, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> > "It's control. All these things arise from one difficulty: control.
>>>> For the first time it was inside, do you see? The control is put inside. No
>>>> more need to suffer passively under 'outside forces'--to veer into any
>>>> wind. As if......"
>>>> >
>>>> > Besides the control associations listed in Joseph's post, a Control
>>>> is the person the medium uses to communicate with, ---Selena I guess?  And
>>>> there is what The Firm is trying to do, is doing we learn here (but not
>>>> what yet)......now internalized? ????
>>>> >
>>>> > Wind, formerly secular to Roland, is now everywhere. Often a symbol
>>>> of spirit, the Spirit, in many religious uses....
>>>> >
>>>> > Eventyr is Norse for adventure, or fairy tale, ...Gloaming is that
>>>> time of day before dark....
>>>> >
>>>> > Another scene where Pynchon is always saying?: ...."more than in all
>>>> your philosophy" [science?], Horatio?" Even if fully ironic, as seems to be
>>>> Mann's use per Kai's post, it still sez here, people act as if there
>>>> is......
>>>> >
>>>> > it keeps the ambiguity of Both Sides of the epigraph as plot device
>>>> seesaw/fulcrum alive.
>>>> >
>>>> > And opens up interpretation as a metaphor, a synecdoche, a 'something
>>>> else' in meaning.
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 1:17 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> > Here is a summary of key events in the chapter. Disagreements with
>>>> anything?
>>>> >
>>>> > At the opening of Chapter 5( 30-38) we enter a seance conducted in
>>>> some space of  SOE aka the Firm, a space lit by a sensitive flame in which
>>>> a medium, Carroll Eventyr, seems to have entered the spirit of Roland
>>>> Feldspath expert on control systems, guidance equations (a concept which
>>>> haunts the novel in various forms: rocket
>>>> guidance,determinism/calvinism/fascism/gnosticism ). Roland has "
>>>> transected into the realm of Dominus Blicero”, but Roland gets distracted
>>>> from Blicero by lights moving as in a  dance and  particularly by the  wind
>>>> as a kind of ecstatic force he never knew. He calls out to his wife Selena
>>>> ,who assures she is listening; he starts talking about the difficulty of
>>>> control and  about replacing the invisible hand of the market  with self
>>>> creating control, dispensing with God, then counters that this is only a
>>>> more harmful illusion that A causes B when they are part of same….
>>>> > The seance is almost over as the sensitive flame that responds to
>>>> sound and movement retreats then soars up as a new rocket falls  and
>>>> Jessica Swanlake throws dart  which hits dead center .  Selena ,  the dead
>>>> Feldspath’s wife is there. All is recorded by Milton Gloaming trying to
>>>> develop statistical analysis of psychic and other events( death is the most
>>>> frequent word he records). Jessica and Gloaming converse, he asks about
>>>> Roger Mexico, her lover, who she says is with Pirate Prentice.  We move to
>>>> conversation in Snoxall’s (pub,club?) between Prentice and Mexico; Prentice
>>>> is more ambitious and more paranoid than first impression.  Mexico thinks
>>>> the project with psychics is endangered by the revival of witch laws .
>>>> Prentice is delivering microfilm to Mexico from Bloat. We find out about
>>>> PISCES under the larger White Visitation. Pirate is concerned about the
>>>> non-war/post-war related schemes arriving with the  Americans and obscuring
>>>> Germany and war, thinks Mexico is being used in one such indecent plot,
>>>> notes Mexico’s growing enthusiasm for microfilm being sent. Beautiful
>>>> Jessica triggers Prentice's memory of affair with Scorpia Mossmoon, now
>>>> long over. PP longing for real love, friendship, jealous of , but hoping
>>>> Jessica and R M stay together. As chapter fades into maudlin with memory of
>>>> Mossmoon’s inevitable departure Pynchon brings in the merry midgets but it
>>>> falls a bit flat.
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > We think of WW2 as a particularly modern and technological war and
>>>> that gets much attention in GR, but from the start Pynchon is diving into a
>>>> less respectable aspect of the pursuit of information. Psychic or
>>>> paranormal phenomena . Why is it so prominent? We know it played a role in
>>>> the war, but is it standing in for something larger in the Novel? In some
>>>> ways it allows P to introduce nonstandard economic and political
>>>> information into the War history. Is there more?-
>>>> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>>
>>>> -
>>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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