GR translation: Arab With A Big Greasy Nose

[Simon Bryquer]

Being ill (dracunculiasis) and to perform on is vomiting on someone or something. Key :Army.

 

As per the following:

 

Perhaps this has been answered before – we’re talking about Kipling here.  The ‘Fuzzy-Wuzzy’ poem of 19th  century British soldier view of Hadendoa warriors in Sudan.

 

Gary Grant and all that refers to the movie ‘Gunga Din’ (also a Kipling poem made into a movie) played by Sam Jaffe, who I vaguely recall could be described in that movie as ‘Arab With A Big Greasy Nose’ though it’s all about India.

 

BTW Sam Jaffe was great in the John Houston movie ‘Asphalt Jungle’ ---- also I believe this was Marilyn Monroe first speaking role, though she did not get any screen credit. She plays a slightly mentally off babysitter --- and she was extremely good.

 

Maybe the key words here : dracunculiasis and elephant medicine

 

A parasitic infection caused by drinking flea invested water and causes one to vomit – to perform on here might be vomiting on one or many in the crowded army in battle.

 

I would conclude to perform on is vomiting on someone or many. 

 

 

From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf Of Monte Davis
Sent: Monday, May 23, 2016 12:30 PM
To: Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
Cc: Pynchon Mailing List <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Subject: Re: GR translation: Arab With A Big Greasy Nose

 

I take the "wistful classic" to be a comic song. I don't know the song, or know that Pynchon had any existing song in mind rather than a tease. So "perform" is wide open to your suggested definition... or to a musical performance (like squeezing a clown's rubber nose)... or to a sexual performance (details depending on culture, other organs involved, and how one feels about noses).

 

On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 11:54 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com <mailto:gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> > wrote:

Resurrecting this old post nobody replied to back in 2011. A search in
the archives shows that this has been asked a few times, but no one
had an answer. The problems is that I still have to figure out how to
translate "perform on". From the OED:

6. intr.
b. euphem. Esp. of a child or a pet: to urinate or defecate.

Does this make sense to anyone else given the context?

On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 4:19 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com <mailto:gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> > wrote:
> P14.5-13   In 1935 he had his first episode outside any condition of
> known sleep—it was during his Kipling Period, beastly Fuzzy-Wuzzies
> far as eye could see, dracunculiasis and Oriental sore rampant among
> the troops, no beer for a month, wireless being jammed by other Powers
> who would be masters of these horrid blacks, God knows why, and all
> folklore broken down, no Gary Grant larking in and out slipping
> elephant medicine in the punchbowls out here . .. not even an Arab
> With A Big Greasy Nose to perform on, as in that wistful classic every
> tommy’s heard . . .
>
> What is this classic with "an Arab With A Big Greasy Nose"?  And what
> do they want to perform on him?
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l

 

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