Target city and greenhouse

[Monte Davis]

p. 2: "Above him lift girders old as an iron queen, and glass somewhere far
above that would let the light of day through. But it’s night. He’s afraid
of the way the glass will fall—soon—it will be a spectacle: the fall of a
crystal palace."

p. 7: "Trusswork is pierced by daylight, milky panes beam beneficently
down. How could there be a winter—even this one—gray enough to age this
iron that can sing in the wind, or cloud these windows that open into
another season, however falsely preserved?"

As different as nightmare and daybreak. The bananery is benign, although
this description is bracketed by Pirate's waking rocket terror: "He feels
he's about to shit... The pores of his face are prickling... sweat lies on
his skin almost as cold as ice."  Are these two iron-and-glass enclosures
the same, seen from two sides of the gate of horn -- or is it ivory?
Alternatives? Either/or? Both/and?

And don't forget Callisto's change-defying (-denying?) greenhouse in
"Entropy."

*
"All that was left standing [of the relocated Crystal Palace] after the
1936 fire were the two water towers.... The south tower to the right of the
Crystal Palace entrance was taken down shortly after the fire, as the
damage sustained had undermined its integrity and it presented a major risk
to houses nearby.

"The north tower was demolished with explosives in 1941. No reason was
given for its removal, although it was rumoured that it was to remove a
landmark for WWII German aircraft, but Luftwaffe bombers actually navigated
their way to Central London by tracking the River Thames. The Crystal
Palace grounds were also used as a manufacturing base for aircraft radar
screens and other hi-tech equipment of the time. This remained secret until
well after the war."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20160317/2fe775d0/attachment.html>