GR translation: serai

[Mike Jing]

Thanks for responding, Jochen, Monte, and Mark.

On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 1:01 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> Since my opinions  are often wrong, why not be wrong again, I ask myself and
> let the others refine by further expression.
>
> First, why, again, is it not both at once, so to speak? The very nature of
> Empson's Ambiguities?
>
> Second, the denotative is in my readings, decidedly secondary, because even
> that "inn"-- "no room at the inn" in the Christian Birth myth folds into the
> whole king--prince motif. Everywhere here. That stable/inn where JC was born
> is a mythic palace for Christians. I do not think P would have used the word
> seria without meaning #2 foremost. He would have used the words we define it
> with if he meant meaning #1, imho.
>
> This whole scene is a mythic setup verbally akin conceptually to the Oven
> chapter but satiric.. "The ground of golden straw" is realistic enough but
> needs no real inn, since it is part of the Myth.
>
> When he ends it with "Is the baby smiling or is it just gas?" we know where
> we are and are laughing and wincing at The Christ Child story.
>
> So this para ends with "Which do you want it to be?"....
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 12:24 PM, Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> Yes, #1 denotatively -- I'd translate with whatever Chinese could be "inn"
>> or "travelers' lodging," ideally with an archaic/exotic tone because that's
>> what "serai" has
>>
>> ...keeping in mind that for Christians, #2 comes along wrapped up in the
>> myth. The paradox that the Christ child -- not even in the humble inn but in
>> its humbler stable -- is also the newborn king,  to whom angels and Very
>> Important People from afar pay tribute, has a place in most Anglophone
>> Christmas carols. So there is a "palace" connotation in there too, but IMO
>> Weisenburger is mistaken to make it primary.
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 12:05 PM, Mike Jing
>> <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> V131.19-28   The true king only dies a mock death. Remember. Any
>>> number of young men may be selected to die in his place while the real
>>> king, foxy old bastard, goes on. Will he show up under the Star, slyly
>>> genuflecting with the other kings as this winter solstice draws on us?
>>> Bring to the serai gifts of tungsten, cordite, high-octane?  Will the
>>> child gaze up from his ground of golden straw then, gaze into the eyes
>>> of the old king who bends long and unfurling overhead, leans to
>>> proffer his gift, will the eyes meet, and what message, what possible
>>> greeting or entente will flow between the king and the infant prince?
>>>
>>> From the OED:
>>>
>>> serai, n.1
>>>
>>> 1. a. In various Eastern countries, A building for the accommodation
>>> of travellers; a caravanserai.
>>>
>>> 2. A Turkish palace; esp. the palace of the Sultan at Constantinople.
>>>
>>> Weisenburger chose meaning #2 in the Companion, but #1 seems to make
>>> more sense to me, since it looks like the infant is still in a stable
>>> (his ground of golden straw).
>>>
>>> Comments?
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>
>>
>
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l