GR translation: their own pitiable contingency here, in its midst

[Danny Weltman]

Yes, exactly. The are a contingency because they could just as easily not
have existed. A rocket could have blown them up, etc.

On Sat, May 6, 2017 at 6:44 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 4.a. A chance occurrence; an event the occurrence of which could not
> have been, or was not, foreseen; an accident, a casualty.
>
> This seems to make sense, given the next paragraph:
>
> It isn’t safe, even inside, in the house . . . nearly every day a
> rocket misfires. Late in October, not far from this estate, one fell
> back and exploded, killing 12 of the ground crew, breaking windows for
> hundreds of meters all around, including the west window of the
> drawing-room where Katje first saw her golden game-brother. The
> official rumor stated that only fuel and oxidizer had gone off. But
> Captain Blicero, with a trembling—she must say nihilistic—pleasure,
> said that the Amatol charge in the warhead had also exploded, making
> them as much target as launch site. . . . That they were all
> condemned.
>
>
> On Sat, May 6, 2017 at 9:21 AM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > V96.5-16, P97.40-98.10   How seriously is she playing? In a conquered
> > country, one’s own occupied country, it’s better, she believes, to
> > enter into some formal, rationalized version of what, outside,
> > proceeds without form or decent limit day and night, the summary
> > executions, the roustings, beatings, subterfuge, paranoia, shame . . .
> > though it is never discussed among them openly, it would seem Katje,
> > Gottfried, and Captain Blicero have agreed that this Northern and
> > ancient form, one they all know and are comfortable with—the strayed
> > children, the wood-wife in the edible house, the captivity, the
> > fattening, the Oven—shall be their preserving routine, their shelter,
> > against what outside none of them can bear—the War, the absolute rule
> > of chance, their own pitiable contingency here, in its midst. . . .
> >
> > What does "contingency" mean here?
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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