BtZ42 Read

[ish mailian]

That opening scene in GR, a dream from below, a subconscious point of
view, as it begins with a scream above, in the sky, and then the focus
remains on what is above from the perspective of one who is below, the
emotions, fear and anxiety caused by what is above and what will fall
on those below, then the movement, and it is a narrowing and a drive
deeper below. I think the elevators take the evacuees down, not up,
down and away from any possibility of light, of salvation, of being
heard, even if they scream.

Now P made a book into a film recently, or somebody did it with his
OK, and it is, far as I know his first major film, but he worked on
film in his youth as I recall reading that at Cornell he was part of
some little film project or other. In any event, the young P is said
to have had an interest in making opera or space opera....but what
strikes me here again as I re-read this opening passage is how keen P
seems to be to make a movie. The camera position here that is the
dream of Pirate is from below to above.

The one in Chapter 2 of AGTD is from Above to what is Below and there,
it is not humans but cattle that are rushed through the Cartesian grid
to the killing floor.

There are parallels.

The WWII camera, some fixed to airplanes, others handheld down into
tunnels, some in balloons.

The little commentary in both passages suggest the use of film,
photography. The colors, the hues, the light or the dark room. all
kinda hint at P the fil maker.

On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 10:55 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> Nicely argued.
>> On Mar 16, 2016, at 9:39 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Doesn't this opening remind anyone of the opening to Chapter Two of
>> _Against The Day_?
>>
>> The imagery in _AGTD_ may be a poaching parody, of Upton Sinclair and
>> others of the period, as McHale argues, and following that analysis we
>> should look for film parody and poach here, but here in this opening
>> of GR,  I am inclined to read this opening a not a parody or a poach,
>> but as the imagination of a writer who has been influenced, as
>> critical studies argue, by everyone and everything, but who has hit
>> his stride and is writing in a style that is rightfully and especially
>> his own. The anxiety of influence, so glaring in all previous works is
>> ground to dust. Though Mumford and Dickens and Orwell echo here, in
>> the imagery, Pynchon has a style all his own and what a style it is.
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 8:11 AM, Ray Easton
>> <raymond.lee.easton at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I loathe statements about literature of the form "it feels to me like..."  (
>>> pace, Mark -- not aiming at you, but only at myself! ), but I do have to say
>>> that some of what follows after the dream "feels to me like" the beginning
>>> of Ulysses.  Felt so my first reading and has every time since.
>>>
>>> I cannot figure out why, though -- and the why is what matters.
>>>
>>> Sent with AquaMail for Android
>>> http://www.aqua-mail.com
>>>
>>> On March 16, 2016 6:37:02 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Distinct feeling of Mulligan at Ulysses opening now that you mention it.
>>>> Wholly changed but in comic tone and meaning
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 4:02 AM, Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> And the first rebirth is a Pirate, followed by Bloat.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> “There are proceedings of such a delicate nature that it is well to
>>>>> overwhelm them with coarseness and make them unrecognisable; there are
>>>>> actions of love and of extravagant magnanimity after which nothing can be
>>>>> wiser than to take a stick and thrash the witness soundly…“ Nietzsche, BG&E,
>>>>> 29.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> And what is Pirate‘s relation to Buck Mulligan and Stephen Dedalus,
>>>>> anyway?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list
>
> -
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