GR translation: Arab With A Big Greasy Nose

[Mike Jing]

Unfortunately, I still have no idea.

On Sat, May 28, 2016 at 10:05 AM, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
> We still want to know where "perform on" comes from, though.
>
> Www.innergroovemusic.com
>
>> On May 27, 2016, at 11:37 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks everyone for responding.
>>
>> On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 3:45 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen
>> <lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>>>
>>> And Sam Jaffe appears in Bleeding Edge!
>>>
>>> "'This is me?' Ernie said when he saw the photo. 'I look like Sam Jaffe.'
>>> 'A friend of yours, Mr. Tarnow?'
>>> 'A movie actor.' Explaining to Efrem Zimbalist Jr. here how in The Day the
>>> Earth Stood Still (1951) Sam Jaffe, playing Professor Barnhardt, the
>>> smartest man in the world, Einstein only different, after writing some
>>> advanced equations all over the blackboard in his study, steps out for a
>>> minute. The extraterrestrial Klaatu shows up looking for him and finds the
>>> boardful of symbols, like the worst algebra class you were ever in, notices
>>> what seems to be a mistake down in the middle of it, erases something and
>>> writes something else in, then leaves. When the Professor comes back, he
>>> immediately spots the change to his equations and stands there kind of
>>> beaming at the blackboard. It was some such expression that had crossed
>>> Ernie's face just as the covered federal shutter fell.
>>> 'I've heard of that movie,' recalled this Windust party, 'pacifist
>>> propaganda in the depths of the Cold War, I believe it was flagged as
>>> potentially Communist-inspired,'
>>> 'Yeah, you people blacklisted Sam Jaffe too. He wasn't a Communist, but he
>>> refused to testify. For years no studio would hire him. He made a living
>>> teaching math in high school. Strangely enough.'
>>> 'He taught high school? Who would've been disloyal enough to hire him?'"
>>> 'This is 2001, Maxeleh,' Ernie now shaking his head back and forth, 'the
>>> Cold War is supposed to be over, how can these people not have changed or
>>> moved on, where is such a terrible inertia coming from?'
>>> 'You always used to say their time hasn't passed, it's yet to come.'"
>>>
>>> pp. 100-101
>>>
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASsNtti1XZs
>>>
>>> Klaatu's speech sounds indeed a little bit "Communist-inspired", no?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 23.05.2016 20:52, Simon Bryquer wrote:
>>>
>>> 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>
>>> 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>
>>> 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
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l