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

[David Morris]

Being too clever is the enemy of the obvious.

On Sun, May 7, 2017 at 8:57 AM ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:

> The Plan. The routine. The form, Northern and ancient, that is never
> discussed, but is nevertheless, a contingency, pitiable as it is, the plan
> provides a routine in the midst of what proceeds without form, the war. It
> is the theatre / theater.
>
> On Sun, May 7, 2017 at 8:48 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> One possible reading, obvious or not, but 'contingency' also has those
>> ultimate metaphysical notes of pure existential chance as a reading as
>> outlined by Mike and others above...vs. any kind of plan--a GR
>> theme--pattern vs no patterns; causes and effect vs. none. I have a
>> tendency to read it as ultimate, as the very fact of being vs. not being.
>> The concept was around a lot in the existentialism ethos of P's GR time.
>> See sartre for example.
>>
>> This major book from 1970-71 has been mentioned here before:
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chance_and_Necessity
>>
>> From Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: 4. Necessity and Contingency4.1
>> Historical context
>>
>> The Condemnations of 1277 and John Duns Scotus impelled the view that the
>> world could be other than it is. The idea that God’s omnipotent power
>> provides him with an infinity of choices out of which he chooses to create
>> only one set of possibilities became a governing idea among subsequent
>> English schoolmen. Scotus also argued forcefully for the idea that each
>> moment was open to contingent possibility, such that for any time t, the
>> events at t were possible not to be the events at t.
>>
>> https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/contingency
>>
>> This 'contingency [plan]' reading has to incorporate the word 'outside'
>> in that clause 'against what outside none of them can bear' since it is
>> THERE that "the pitiable contingency" exists --The reading works, one can
>> argue, and Morris has and will, but one wonders why the word "here' and why
>> P did not write 'contingency plan" maybe?
>>
>> On Sun, May 7, 2017 at 1:30 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> As usual, this seemed very obvious, and will likely be met with the
>>> usual humbugs.
>>>
>>> David Morris
>>>
>>> On Sat, May 6, 2017 at 9:23 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> "Their own pitiable contingency [plan]"
>>>>
>>>> Refers to their "preserving routine" enacted (pitiably) as protection
>>>> against the real War of chance going on outside.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>    - a provision for an unforeseen event or circumstance.
>>>>    "a contingency reserve"
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> David Morris
>>>>
>>>> Sat, May 6, 2017 at 7:22 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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