How Pynchon once mistook a virus for a metaphor

[Mark Thibodeau]

All the best, Becky. Stay safe, everyone! If anyone out there feels like
using this service to help ease the boredom of self-isolating, I love to
chat, so feel free to contact me!

yer old pal Jerky

On Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 9:14 PM Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com> wrote:

> Best of luck Becky (and everyone else)
>
> On Wednesday, March 18, 2020, Becky Lindroos <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> wrote:
>
> > Hey Laura, thanks,
> >
> > I don’t have deliveries but I’m doing pretty well. I’m trying to look out
> > after myself - keep self safe, etc.  My good neighbor/buddy took me to
> the
> > ER and stayed there with me last night.  My cleaning lady checks on me
> > regularly.  But I took myself to the market pharmacy this morning to get
> > new Rx’s and a few extra goodies mostly because I was really curious
> about
> > the situation.  I’m always pretty well stocked without being a prepper.
> >
> > Thank you for asking -  :-)
> >
> > Btw, I’m reading the new biography,  Mr Putin by Fiona Hill (of
> > Congressional Hearing fame) and Hilary Mantel’s 3rd in her Thomas
> Cromwell
> > series,   They’re both quite good although the bio can get a wee bit
> boring
> > at times,
> >
> > Becky
> >
> > > On Mar 18, 2020, at 10:47 AM, Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > Yikes, Becky. Please take care of yourself. Can you get food/medicine
> > deliveries where you live?
> > >
> > > On Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 12:38 PM Becky Lindroos <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net
> >
> > wrote:
> > > Gag re the Orange Pustule, Laura - yep.  I forget that I’m 72 and not
> in
> > great health and my kids worry as they live half way across the
> country.  I
> > also have friends here who check on me.
> > >
> > > Soooo…..   I was in the emergency room last night (8 hours!) and I had
> a
> > mask because I had symptoms (BUT my symptoms were stomach flu and
> > dehydration).  Most others - (the non-patients) did not have masks.
> Generic
> > corona-virus testing was somewhere else and the tent for determining that
> > was outside the hospital doors. .  ??? -
> > >
> > > Fwiw,  I had lung surgery in September (I don’t know if I mentioned
> that
> > prior) and although I’m pretty well recovered I’m still weak -
> vulnerable.
> > It was stage 1 cancer.
> > >
> > > Becky  - a Boomer who will not be Removed -
> > > So be safe - keep me safe!
> > >
> > >
> > > > On Mar 18, 2020, at 8:46 AM, Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > And, on cue, there goes the Orange Pustule referring to coronavirus
> as
> > the
> > > > Chinese Virus.
> > > > My favorite name for it so far: the Boomer Remover.
> > > >
> > > > Laura, age 62
> > > >
> > > > On Wed, Mar 18, 2020, 9:14 AM Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> the Spanish Flu is relevant also because it didn't start in Spain;
> it
> > was
> > > >> called the Spanish Flu because Spain was one of the few countries
> > that was
> > > >> reporting on it truthfully, the others were hiding the pandemic to
> > maintain
> > > >> wartime morale. no one really knows where it started; it might have
> > been
> > > >> Kansas (as per *wikipedia* <
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
> > >)
> > > >>
> > > >> On Wed, Mar 18, 2020 at 1:06 PM Kai Frederik Lorentzen <
> > > >> lorentzen at hotmail.de>
> > > >> wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >>>
> > > >>> The concrete sentence from "Entropy" goes like this:  "Not even the
> > > >>> clean constant winds of Switzerland could cure the GRIPPE
> ESPAGNOLE:
> > > >>> Stravinsky had had it, they all had had it". Oh well ...
> > > >>>
> > > >>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
> > > >>>
> > > >>> " ... Though it may not be wrong absolutely to make up, as I still
> > do,
> > > >>> what I don't know or am too lazy to find out, phony data are more
> > often
> > > >>> than not deployed in places sensitive enough to make a difference,
> > > >>> thereby losing what marginal charm they may have possessed outside
> of
> > > >>> the story's context. Witness an example from 'Entropy.' In the
> > character
> > > >>> of Callisto I was trying for a sort of world-weary Middle-European
> > > >>> effect, and put in the phrase GRIPPE ESPAGNOLE, which I had seen on
> > some
> > > >>> liner notes to a recording of Stravinsky's L'HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT. I
> > must
> > > >>> have thought this was some kind of of post-World War I spiritual
> > malaise
> > > >>> or something. Come to find out it means what it says, Spanish
> > influenza,
> > > >>> and the reference I lifted was really to the worldwide flu epidemic
> > that
> > > >>> followed the war.
> > > >>>    The lesson here, obvious but now and then overlooked, is just to
> > > >>> corroborate one's data, in particular those acquired casually, such
> > as
> > > >>> through hearsay or off the backs of record albums ..."
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Slow Learner (Introduction)
> > > >>>
> > > >>> --
> > > >>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> > > >>>
> > > >> --
> > > >> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> > > >>
> > > > --
> > > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> > >
> >
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>