BTZ42Read: it has happened before

[Monte Davis]

Set aside what you know is coming. On that first page you don't know you're
in 1944, or London. or that V-2s will play a part in the novel.

You're in an evacuation, in some sort of train, leaving a city, and you
infer attack from that and the anticipation of glass breaking overhead.

 So *don't be quick assimilate the screaming to a V-2*, and its reversed
sequence of explosion -> sound of passage. There has been no explosion
here. On this page the screaming is as likely -= more likely -- to be an
air-raid siren, or whistles of evacuation trains, or screams of terrified
citizens.

"It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now." That's
how things happen in dreams: an event or thing or person is charged with
significance, but stripped of the tags and flags and links that let us
categorize waking percepts or compare them to -- well, anything -- for
plausibility. We're in Pirate's dream. As we will learn later, dreaming
others' dreams is his specialty (although whether he's receiving,
transmitting, or both is ambiguous). He's an artist, if only a 'prentice.

On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 1:20 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> Hey, wasn't the official group read start date tomorrow? Will we have
> anything to compare the discussion to then?
>
> I take the opening sentences at closer to face value - the prosaic view:
>
> A screaming comes across the sky. The V-2 rocket, super-sonic, so its
> sound is out of kilter with time. "Screaming" reflects that more than "a
> scream."
>
> It has happened before … Again, the prosaic read - if you're hearing the
> V-2, it's already landed - no need to kiss your ass goodbye.
>
>  … but there is nothing to compare it to now. This is the toughest nut to
> crack.  " … and, therefore, there is nothing to compare it to now," seems a
> more logical end to the sentence. The word "but" emphasizes the word "now."
> It implies that when it happened before (when this rocket was launched? Or:
> whenever these rockets have been launched in the past?) there WAS something
> to compare it to. So I guess what I'm saying is that the word "but" derails
> the simplistic V-2 reading. What in hell does Pynchon mean?
>
> Laura
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: Ray Easton <raymond.lee.easton at gmail.com>
> >Sent: Mar 14, 2016 12:51 PM
> >To: P-list List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >Subject: BTZ42Read: it has happened before
> >
> >How do you (any of you) read the second sentence?
> >
> >Ray
> >
> >-----
> >You don't need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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