Atd translation: balloonheaded clarity

[Joseph Tracy]

I’m not so sure "seen from a ballon" can be rejected considering so much in the novel is filtered through the Chums balloon’s eye view. The Chums are like fiction looking at real history. Their view is both weirdly clear and also intoxicated by their peculiar “boy’s adventure" POV.  

Pynchon does not seem to me to be saying in this pasage that the point of view is  stupidly wrong but correct in a somewhat intoxicated and mildly distorted way, that distortion is equaled in the mine owners thinking of workers as expendable dwarves, seen a  small from the height of their power.
> On Apr 18, 2018, at 2:28 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Oh yes, definitely.  I even considered the possibility of it meaning "seen
> from a balloon", but that seems to be too far away from the common meaning.
> 
> Another possibility is being feverish, so your head feels like a balloon.
> But I'm not quite sure how that works here.
> 
> And the dictionary definition of "stupid" , I can't make sense of that here
> either.
> 
> 
> On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 4:49 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> i think the balloon--headed is a nice Chums internal allusion, so to
>> speak.
>> 
>> On Fri, Apr 13, 2018 at 2:55 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> About 585,000 results (0.27 seconds)
>>> Search Results
>>> balloon-headed | Definition of balloon-headed in US English by ...
>>> <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/balloon-headed>
>>> https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/balloon-headed
>>> 
>>> <https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&safe=active&q=%27balloon+headed+clarity&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj12qO49LfaAhXJxFkKHaFZBj8QBSgAegQIABAn&biw=934&bih=923#>
>>> 
>>>   1.
>>>   <https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:WiaMIknQr3UJ:https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/balloon-headed+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us>
>>> 
>>> Definition of *balloon*-*headed* in US English - Having a large or round
>>> head; (figurative) conceited; stupid.
>>> Missing: clarity
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Fri, Apr 13, 2018 at 2:47 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Search Results
>>>> balloon-headed | Definition of balloon-headed in US English by ...
>>>> <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/balloon-headed>
>>>> https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/balloon-headed
>>>> 
>>>> <https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&safe=active&q=%27balloon+headed+clarity&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj12qO49LfaAhXJxFkKHaFZBj8QBSgAegQIABAn&biw=934&bih=923#>
>>>> 
>>>>   1.
>>>>   <https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:WiaMIknQr3UJ:https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/balloon-headed+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us>
>>>> 
>>>> Definition of *balloon*-*headed* in US English - Having a large or
>>>> round head; (figurative) conceited; stupid.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Fri, Apr 13, 2018 at 2:37 PM, Mike Jing <
>>>> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> P176.10-18   The altitude, the scale of the country out here, put a
>>>>> balloonheaded clarity onto vision when directed at mine owners and
>>>>> workers
>>>>> alike, revealing the Plutonic powers as they daily sent their legions of
>>>>> gnomes underground to hollow out as much of that broken domain as they
>>>>> could before the over-burden collapsed, often as not on top of their
>>>>> heads,
>>>>> though what did it matter to the Powers, who always had more dwarves
>>>>> waiting, even eagerly, to be sent below. Scabs and Union men, Union and
>>>>> scabs, round and round, changing sides, changing back again, sure didn’t
>>>>> help with what he felt no embarrassment in thinking of as a contest for
>>>>> his
>>>>> soul.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Why is this clarity "balloonheaded"? Is this good or bad?
>>>>> --
>>>>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
>> 
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l