Mark Kohut
mark.kohut at gmail.com
Sun Mar 27 10:18:21 CDT 2016
While living and doing yesterday, I 'formulated' these loose thoughts on
Why the Adenoid?
Inflamed tonsils--since I did not know Laura's distinction---sign of a
diseased body (as in body politic?),
in an aristocrat, so it is the ruling class---later relooped around Richard
Schlubb Nixon--who cannot
be communicated with in those pre-war years , thanks Monte for proper
chronology, and so I was then reminded
of those scenes in AtD where all the Balkans (and Europe?) are feeling the
war atmosphere re WW1, here now
the impending disease of WW2, the sickness of war overwhelming the body
politic of England.
But, as indicated, Laura tied up such loose thinking superbly and better.
On Sun, Mar 27, 2016 at 6:36 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> Nailed, to use a construction metaphor. Q.E.D. to use another kind. Best
> of show. Top of the Heap.
> Etc.
>
> On Sat, Mar 26, 2016 at 3:03 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>> Adenoids are different from tonsils - they're higher up, behind the nose.
>> Swollen adenoids are generally a problem in childhood, after which they
>> tend to shrink. When swollen, they hamper breathing, and so they may need
>> to be surgically removed.
>>
>> Some thoughts on the giant adenoid:
>>
>> It first appears to Pirate, some time between 1935 and 1939, together
>> with "the unmistakable smell of gas." Gas - giant adenoid preventing either
>> a giant child or mass numbers of children from breathing - could be a
>> vision/premonition of the kids who will die in the Nazi gas chambers. "The
>> Army shows up in full battle gear with bombs full of the latest deadly
>> gas." But the giant adenoid cannot be gotten rid of, communicated with or
>> understood. Eventually, Lord Osmo is able to ignore it and focus on the
>> Novi Pazar beat. Osmo dies in a tubful of pudding (connecting him with the
>> soon-to-appear Brigadier Pudding). Two old-school Brits who are still
>> focussed on the politics of WWI - totally unable to address the brewing
>> holocaust.
>>
>> Laura
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Mark Kohut
>> Sent: Mar 26, 2016 9:21 AM
>> To: Monte Davis , pynchon -l
>> Subject:
>>
>> MD---So... why an adenoid (i.e. a tonsil), rather than an appendix or
>> spleen or hypothalamus? Why human tissue at all, rather than some other
>> stand-in for Osmo's fears? Its slimy protoplasmic aspect led me on first
>> reading to think of SF movies:
>>
>> more to come but remember that Richard Schlubb, when he is brought in to
>> loop the history is described as 'adenoidal" .....
>>
>>
>
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