BTZ42Read: it has happened before

[Steven Koteff]

Good point, Monte. Interesting to imagine what it'd be like to read, and make sense of, that iconic opener before it is iconic. Before you know anything about the book. 

Along those lines, it's interesting to think about the word "screaming" in terms of, like, why is it the optimal diction not just for thematic reasons, or for other arch-reasons, but for illustrative reasons. Like, scene-making reasons. Or rather how does that also reveal the grander stuff. 

Pynchon basically always has the ability to be exactly as linguistically precise as he wants. So it's important/purposeful that he doesn't, at first, describe what kind of screaming it is. Human. Animal. Mechanic. The obscurity is important. But what's also important is the immediacy/primality of the vagueness. The "screaming" is the immutable character to whatever kind of screaming it is. And it is absolute, and hits you all at once. Fills you. It's not just a rocket screaming. It's all screaming. That's what hits you first. In a primal, absolute, Jung would say archetypal way. It hits your ancestors before it hits your you. 

> On Mar 14, 2016, at 1:53 PM, Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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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