LISS/STEPVR (27,22) April 21, 8th roundup

Tue Apr 21 04:40:20 UTC 2020

Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2020 09:57:28 -0400
From: ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>
A little tale of the fig in Zoyd's yard.
...I will examine the squadron of Blue Jays and the Carrier Pigeons and
the Dog next.
If this has been done, let me kow and I'll move on to the dress.
(followed by some good fig stuff)

--------Thanks for that. It's hanging in the window (the creeping fig)

Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2020 12:27:52 -0400
From: ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>

Creeping fig (Ficus pumila), hardy from U.S. Department of Agriculture
plant hardiness zone 8 to 9 or 11, depending on cultivar, is the only
member of the fig family to slither up walls and crawl on the ground. It
seldom flowers, so unlike some of its messier relatives, it produces little
or no fruit.
(sfgate link, a nice one)

--------Thank you some more.
...from Tim Strzechowski in 2003
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0307&msg=83073&sort=date

Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2020 12:19:44 -0500
From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>

Creeping fig is a wonderful ground cover or wall cover.  It is only
invasive if not maintained, which isn't difficult.  Ficus trees are equally
tenacious.  Left outside in a pot, it will get its roots into the ground by
hook or crook.

- seems reasonable.

Date: Sun, 19 Apr 2020 15:11:25 -0400
From: ish mailian

Yes, tough creeping green vine in the land of plenty, and, by rhizome,
philosophically, at least,  the creeping fig, though this is certainly
not apparent at first, is, by way of Deleuze and Guattari, an allusion
to Nazim Hikmet, who, of course, wrote The Epic of Sheikh Bedreddin.

The squadron of Blue Jays is a squadron, now that is tautological
isn't it, but I want to place emphasis on the word Squadron.  To
birders out in California, those aggressive Blue Jays are not a
squadron. Depending on the season they are either a party or a pair.
And they are contrasted with the carrier pigeons. Now Pynchon is known
for getting stuff right. But are these carrier pigeons? As in the
British beauties bred for show? Of are these homing pigeons? Both are
bred from a common rock pigeon, but the homing one carries messages.
It's Zoyds rip van winkle so I guess they may be whatever Zoyd dreams
up, but aren't these early birds odd when juxtaposed on the very first
page? Any birders out there ...little help.

--------thanks for word of Nazim Hikmet 1902-1963 (from AtD to V. but not
quite to CoL49) though any D&G connection eludes me. Birds in the AM not
unique; the surprise is he notices them & even knows what kind imho.

From: ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>

ight pulsing in their wings...

They swoop, they soar, they light up the sky ? meet the pigeon-fancier
who has trained his flock to wear LEDs and perform a hypnotic night
dance

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jun/19/wing-commander-the-artist-putting-on-a-light-show-with-1500-pigeons

-------- Zoyd's prescient dream. That was fun to watch!

From: ish mailian
Is Pynchon using the informal here? Or does the word hint that these
Blue Jays are a symbol of an operation?

Blue Jays are know for their territorial behavior and for sometimes
stealing the eggs or chicks of other birds.

squad?ron
/?skw?dr?n/

noun: squadron; plural noun: squadrons

an operational unit in an air force consisting of two or more flights
of aircraft and the personnel required to fly them.

a principal division of an armored or cavalry regiment, consisting of
two or more troops.
a group of warships detached on a particular duty or under the command
of a flag officer.
INFORMAL
a large group of people or things.
"he immediately commissioned a squadron of architects"

Origin
mid 16th century (originally denoting a group of soldiers in square
formation): from Italian squadrone, from squadra ?square?.

--------Also, blue jays are corvids, so that also enriches the scene. But
the weight of a blue jay is in ounces & this tells me Zoyd isn't that heavy
a sleeper.

From: ish mailian
Blue Jays Squadron, Carry the 2

If you're still with me on Squadron and Carrier, 2 words that seem
misplaced by Pynchon because Blue Jays, those aggressive birds don't
fly in squadrons and pigeons that carry messages are not carrier
pigeons bu homing pigeons, you might be wondering what happened when
these 2 words are put together. Yes, it is 1984 when Zoyd wakes up too
late, and yes Pynchon did pen an important essay on Orwell's classic,
and in 1984 Pynchon also penned his essay, "Is It O.K.to be a
Luddite?", an essay that begins with an allusion to the dystopian
masterwork, but it's not 1984, not for You, reader, no, for You, Dear
Reader,  it's later, and Raygun's VP is now POTUS. GHWB flew in
squadrons from carriers. Get it?

-------- or it's 2020 and, nostalgic for those times, one reads novels for
artistic  juxtapositions. Perplexing dream doves yield to stomps of 2.3 oz
corvids on the roof, Zoyd's more alert than I'll ever be.

From: ish mailian
Carrier in the ocean with squadrons taking off and landing, light
pulsing in there wings.
Now, as Pynchon says of Orwell, he's no prophet, but GHWB is gonna
send squadrons from carriers.

--------Thanks for these! I thot baffling birds of sleep are beauty he
seeks, birds in blue like cops bustin' - but you're like "Opposite!"

From: ish mailian
Operation Praying Mantis was an attack on 18 April 1988

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Praying_Mantis

--------Thank you, never heard of that, not a fan of war, though I try to
do due diligence. Your tax dollars at work, ever since the CIA deposed
Mossadegh, Iran Air 655 290 RIP.

From: Raphael Saltwood
1) Zoyd's mystery ride, p4 (we find out later, or do we - it is not named
here)

(and there's no mention of a morning shower, dirty hippie was part of the
baggage in those days, many people were on friendlier terms with their
microbiomes, weren't they?)

- OT interpolation: p37 - "Frenesi had ridden into his life like a whole
gang of outlaws. He felt like a schoolmarm. (he was actually kind of a
wildman himself, though) - and then again, on p39, "He smiled, squinting
back, like a schoolmarm who still couldn't believe her luck."
What's with the "schoolmarm"?

-------- lotsa vehicles, thanks! Yeah, does the "schoolmarm?" idea come
from Oakley Hall's _Warlock_?

From: Raphael Saltwood
Subject: LISS/STEPVR do you like VL

my lasting relish for it makes it hard to move on & give commensurate
attention to Mr Pynchon's later - and perhaps even better - novels

-------- Here's to that, and how about another toast to the lingering
effects of VL?

From: Raphael Saltwood
Subject: LISS/STEPVR Pynchon Sex Gender essay "Allons Enfants"
my underwhelming small topic, is that there is abso-tooteley nothing
porn-like about reading Pynchon.
I don't think that's just me. Maybe it is, but I don't think so.
He mentions all kinds of stuff, but never panders.
There's a good feeling of "exist[ing] affectively within a historical [in
this case fictional] formation" which is exciting, but not that way.

--------hmmm. Dost thou protesteth too mucheth, or wast thou trying to
elicit personal revelations?

peterthooper, D&B, G&V
El mil amores (V&B F350 tow truck)
Mille plateaux (D&G opus)

-------- we've got those wily Franks at the Wayvone wedding & now at the
tow truck. Good things come in threes - where else?

Mark Kohut - Molly Hite etc
Hooper: "For me, that aspect will always be secondary, after the story,
because while socio-political stuff embedded in a good tale might make some
valid points, fiction embedded in a socio-political tract proves nothing
(it?s made up!)"

Perhaps the excluded middle applies. That is, a good political novel, they
are fewer than good novels in general, maybe, is one in which the embodied
ideas are as
integrally bound as are the qualities of the characters and setting, etc.

The world that is the case for a novelist is full of embodied "ideas'. Such
'socio-politcal' stuff is as real as character should be, no? America is a
nation founded on
"ideas', revolutionary ones for the times, for history.

I did a self-study class, sorta like a light senior thesis--my school did
not have that thing--on the political novel as the sixties ended. Besides
the novels I read, I read Irving Howe's
The Political Novel, from which I hope I have distilled decently. Malraux,
Silone, others are full of real-enough but embodied characters and ideas.
If not, they are not good work.

Pynchon's IS good work.

-------- Thanks, very cogent. hooper's way off base, figure-ground wise, a'
course you can see it both ways, and probably should.