GR translation: Post-A4 humanity
Mike Jing
gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com
Mon Jun 5 01:16:32 CDT 2017
Thanks for the detailed reply, Monte.
It probably meant even less than that in the published translation.
Not exactly "executors of a will," but rather people who make
arrangements for the funeral and picking up the pieces afterwards. Or
looting the body, as it happens here.
On Sun, Jun 4, 2017 at 8:46 AM, Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com> wrote:
> It's a heavily loaded phrase, Pynchon showing a lot of his thematic cards in
> one quick glimpse:
>
> 1) not just Americans (post-Nazi, post-German, post-European) but "humanity"
> -- as David sez, almost a biologically new breed -- another stroke in the
> implied post-GR future from 1945 to 1973, the future that is arc'd over in
> the last pages of the book
>
> 2) something like Goths wandering the Roman forum after the city's fall, or
> Mongols in Hangzhou in 1276, or Ottomans in Constantinople 1453 --
> "successors" involved in something larger and older than they can grasp
>
> So I don't think the existing translation is wrong to the extent it means
> "executors of a will," people carrying out instructions from the dead -- but
> it needs to be opened out somehow to a longer time scale, to ritual ("last
> rites") significance. After all, when the Americans and Russians get their
> looted hardware home, the Rocket *will* be resurrected (a-and how!)
>
> On Sun, Jun 4, 2017 at 8:02 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> "Humanity " would have a much larger meaning than the people doing the
>> work down in the tunnels. It suggests a new evolutionary human, shaped in
>> ways by the advent of the A-4.
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Sun, Jun 4, 2017 at 4:41 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> V304.1-7, P308.30-37 Post-A4 humanity is moving, hammering, and
>>> shouting among the tunnels. Slothrop will catch sight of badged
>>> civilians in khaki, helmet liners with GE stenciled on, sometimes
>>> getting a nod, eyeglasses flashing under a distant light bulb, most
>>> often ignored. Military working parties go at route-step bitching in
>>> and out, carrying crates. Slothrop is hungry and Yellow James is
>>> nowhere in sight. But there is nobody down here even going to say
>>> howdy to, much less feed, the free lance Ian Scuffling.
>>>
>>> I'm trying to get a better handle on the phrase "Post-A4 humanity".
>>> The published translation has it as "people who are handling A4's
>>> affairs" (after its death), which seems obviously wrong to me. But a
>>> simple direct translation seems a bit unclear in Chinese, although it
>>> might still be the best choice. Any thoughts on its meaning would be
>>> greatly appreciated.
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
>
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