AtD translation: and many began to edge away, anticipating trouble up the tracks

[Mark Kohut]

I think it is one his P's most sublime extended conceits, ---open f'in book
metaphor!? It is Shakespearean---this woman of the painted face, a
porcelain mask,  whose virtues
seem to be opnely erotic lead many men to ....expect trouble (in their
lives) with involvement... "up the tracks"....

On Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 4:28 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

>  ......"like reading an open book, you can read what the person is
> thinking or feeling."
>
> www.dictionary.com/browse/open--book
>
> Something or someone that can be readily examined or understood, as in
> His entire lifeis an open book. This metaphoric expression is often
> expanded to read someone like an open book, meaning “to discern someone's
> thoughts or feelings”; variations of this metaphor were used by
> Shakespeare: “Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,” ( Romeo and
> Juliet, 1:3) and “O, like a book of sport thou'lt read me o'er” ( Troilus
> and Cressida, 4:5).
>
> On Thu, Oct 22, 2020 at 4:20 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the reply, Arthur. It just seems to me totally out of place in
>> the given context, and I'm still puzzled why it's even there. Are people
>> expecting Yup Toy to cause trouble, or is it something else entirely?
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 8:05 AM Arthur Fuller <fuller.artful at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > "Up the tracks" refers to railway tracks, most often, but could in an
>> > urban situation mean subway tracks. As to "trouble", that's purposely
>> > ambiguous. In a Hollywood Western, it might mean Commanches about to
>> attack
>> > the train, or a gang of train-robbers a la Jesse James. In more modern
>> > times, it could mean that the tracks have been blocked with logs by a
>> First
>> > Nations tribe demonstrating against some corporate  takeover of their
>> > lands. And again in an urban context, it could ne  a body left on the
>> > tracks to be severed by the wheels.
>> >
>> > On Mon, Oct 19, 2020 at 11:27 PM Mike Jing <
>> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> >> P367.33-38   Yup Toy herself, waiting by a huge ice machine among a
>> row of
>> >> Oriental ice-girls in abbreviated sequined getups, her painted face a
>> >> porcelain mask in the naphtha-light streaming from somewhere beneath,
>> >> gazed, sucking at a scarlet fingernail, failing to look inscrutable to
>> any
>> >> but the habitually dismissive, such as Ruperta. To others more
>> >> appreciative
>> >> of her virtues, her mind was an open book, and many began to edge away,
>> >> anticipating trouble up the tracks.
>> >>
>> >> What is this last part of the sentence about? What kind of trouble is
>> >> being
>> >> expected? And what is "up the tracks" exactly?
>> >> --
>> >> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Arthur
>> >
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>