M & D Group Read (cont)

[Monte Davis]

"One of the Enigmata of the Invisible World, is how a Voice unlocaliz’d may
yet act powerfully as a moral Center." (666)


On Mon, Jan 8, 2018 at 12:32 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at gmail.com> wrote:

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> *Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 11:00:35 -0500 (EST) From: Paul Mackin To:
> pynchon-l@[omitted] Subject: The E-word *
>
> Below are my notes on the *occurence* of "edge" in M&D.
> Have no way of knowing how much underreporting there is.
> I read the book from start to finish and made a note
> whenever the word jumped out at me. As far as the most common
> usage of the word is concerned it would seem if anything that
> P is quite reticent, i.e., "edge" would occur with greater
> frequency  in average writing. However P's exotic usage of the
> word seems ABOVE average in frequency. This is just gut reaction. I
> haven't done any analysis.
>
> 			P.
>
>
>
> 10  It took me till I was lying among he Rats and Vermin, upon the freezing
> edge of a Future invisible, to understand that my name had never been my own,__
> 24  How is he  suppossed to ignore this pure Edge of blood-love?
> 34  --the Cold of apprpaching Night carrying an edge, the possiblity that
> by
> Morning the Weather will be quite brisk indeed . . .
> 62   Somehwat as his Neighbors each strenuous Sunday profers belief in the
> Great Struggle at the End of the World
> 93   Briefly we behold the gray edge of a cloud of despair . . .
> 110  Rol-ling out the Elkdge-ware Ro-od,--
> 121  'Tis the British Way to take the extra step that may one day give us an
> Edge when we need one
> 137  "What?" Mason begins to edge toward the Tent opening.
> 132 Maskelyne's voice, in such times of stress, edges toward a throat-bas'd
> Soprano
> 160  He was quite distraugh, and but a pace or two from the Edge of the
> precipice.
> 171  She put upon her R the same vigorous Edge, as his father on a difficult
> day,--
> 172 Maskelyne's Observing Suit is edging into Visability.
> 219  Over Wearside, here at Nightfall, exactly upon this Edge between sunlight too bright to see much by and . . .
> 264 "My point exactly!" cries Ethelmer, who had been edging toward the
> Spirits, mindful that at some point he shall have to edge past his cousin
> Tenebrae.
> 271  is slowly absorb'd into a mirthful Cloud of tartan-edg'd Emerald
> Green and luminous Coral Taffeta.
> 273  . . . sentimental ever held back even at the Edge of breaking forth, in
> Fragments, as Glass breaks.
> 309  . . . the dogs run obssessibely to and fro, all 'round the Edges,
> faces a-twist with Efforts to understand
> 324  by which if he kept to a Fiduciary Edge of Right Procedure, he might
> profit, whilst retaining his Sanity.
> 329 . . . will have found its way by the poundful up the nostrils and
> into the brains of these by then alert youths, lending a feverish edge
> to all they  speak and do.
> 337  . . . suggesting locating the exact center of New Castle by taking
> a sheet of paper showing a map of the Town, trimming 'round the edges
> til only the Town remains, . . .
> 338  . . . , but fifteen years ago in the era of Don Vicente Lopez, there
> was an apprehenisve Edge in this Town as soon as the Sun went down,
> that . . .
> 345 He sets his Lips as for a conventional, or Toroidal, Smoke_Ring, but out
> instead comes a Ring like a Length of Ribbon clos'd in a Circle, with a
> single Twist in it, possessing thereby but one Side and one Edge . . .
> (elipsis in  original)
> 354  Then one has Mr. Edgewise . . . . (eilips in orig.)
> 383  A close observer, did one attend, might see him begin to flicker
> 'round the edges.
> 387  Taking what seems far too long, he peers up and down the newly
> glitt'ring Edge, . . .
> 387  She is so flabber-gasting this Macaroni with it that he seems to fall
> into a contemplative Daze before the deep Undulations, a Dreamer at the
> Edge of the Sea.
> 387  I am become a Target for his Instruments edg'd and pointed.
> 395  There is an Edge to Young Romance, this year, that none of those
> testing its Sharpness may recoginize, quite yet.
> 396  Three young Ladies are peeping 'round the 'Door-way, like shorebirds
> at the edge of the Water, stepping nicely in and out of that Aura of
> Tobacco-Smoke that Men for centluries have understood keeps women away
> as well as were they Bug
>
> 401  We've seen 'em all, all manner of Traveler, saints and sinners, green
> and season'd some who could teach Eels to wriggle and some who were pure
> fiduciary Edge, and I'll tell you, this one . . . I don't know.
> 403  The Telescpe stands in its own Window'd Observatory at the Top of
> the House, before it the Edge of the River, . . .
> 406  The tone balanc'd upon a Blade's Edge, between Pity and Contempt.
> 415 Whereupon a golden Edge of Pleasure proceeds to bisect him upwardly
> all the way from his Ballocks to his heart, which these days is a
> lengthy journey.
> 416 advised by friend and enemy that his only decent course would be to
> step off the Edge of the World.--
> 423 "What, this? 'tis a Tub, Sir." Hoping the Echo may give him and Edge.
> 450  "Why are you all edging away from me like that?"
> 441  . . . curiously prostrated before the chunk of Rose Quartz where
> cross the Latitude of the south Edge of Philadelphia . . .
> 485  then returning to this Radiance that flares from behind edges of
> Shapes uncertain,--
> 517  reaching with her arms, run to the roof's edge and into the Air, . .
> 528  . . . tho their Wonderful Telegraph gives them in that Article
> an Edge over the rest of Christendom, . . .
> 545 .. .  for the struggle Zarpazo and I must enact upon the very mortal
> Edge of this great Torrent of Sha,--
> 561  . . . then at the edges of my vision, Blurs appear'd, . . .
> 577 . . . Ev'rybody's feeling edgy.
> 589 --flowing up over the edge . . . indeed, it keeps coming for longer
> than it should.
> 592  . . . with hundreds of firmly attach'd sword-quality Blades, whose
> hone edges flicker with sanguinary light.
> 594  looking for someone who can help him out of the edg'd ,and now
> perhaps even venomous, iron weapon he is wearing.
> 597  The breeze has a cold edge.
> 601  Yet removing Trees to create a pair of perfectly straight Edges,
> is to invite Sha, . . .
> 638  form up at the western edge of town, . . .
> 650 --thro' some Energy  unknown, ever are we haunted by the Edge
> so precise, so near.
> 553  as if they liv'd at the edge of some great lighted Sky-Structure,
> 692  Smugglers of Tobacco, Dye-stuffs, and edg'd Implements flee their
> Storage-Cabins in the middle of the night,
> 697  at which point the Enterpriser has edg'd his way as far as the door.
> 704  saw at the edges of Rooms from the corners of Eyes, shouted to up
> or down a Visto.
> 746  As if here, at the Edge of the World,
> 752  The Fret has gather'd in the waste places, cross'd them, and come
> to the Edge of the Town.
> 754 Busy withd rebellion, America drew back toward the edges of Dixon's
> Frame, where the shadows gather'd.
> 758  and so she turn'd terrible, as she had ever been a shadow's Edge away
> from doing anyway.
> 766  At the last of the Day-light, providentially, at the Edge of York,
> they smell wood-smoke with a sensible Fat Component,
>
>
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> On Mon, Jan 8, 2018 at 4:42 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> in the chapters around the LED, there are lots of
>> animal references. Ape. The LED lusting after blood
>> at Cock-Fights. "How is he supposed to ignore this Edge of
>> blood-love?"--another Bleeding Edge allusion
>> and the edge itself--not around the edges as Joseph recently noted ---
>> is another hard geometric bad shit trope in Pynchon.
>>
>> "Back at the Cock-Fights", Fender-Belly Bodine.....I seem to just now
>> notice that the Cock-Fights were ongoing
>> fictionally in the whole chapter...a backdrop of the whole LED section....
>>
>> There are the lines about the LED being like a human.
>>
>> In the wake of the Age of Reason, with the LED as the synecdoche,
>> it seems Pynchon wants to remind us--delightfully, of course, yet
>> fully---that we
>> are still animals, enjoying Cock-Fights---"that Substance which we are not
>> supposed to acknowledge drips and flies 'ev'rywhere.." Humans, like the
>> LED,
>> will not acknowledge the blood upon which their lives rest.
>>
>> In a notional associative way, I remember that luxury liner in AtD which
>> is also
>> a battleship albeit unknown to the luxury travelers.
>>
>>
>> What was that line some Big Political Leader Guy said, last century, when
>> asked
>> about the salutary effects of The Enlightenment on the world?
>> "I'm still waiting to see it." (very paraphrased and shaky memory)
>>
>>
>>
>
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