AtD translation: allowing herself to imagine

[David Morris]

Mike,

Your take *almost* works if you add the word “despite,” but that addition
would have to modify the word “almost.”  It also woks if you modify
“almost” with the following, possibly better implied, parentheses:

allowing herself to imagine, almost •(but not)• surrendering to the
impossibility
of ever belonging,

The word “almost” thus implying having not having surrendered.

David Morris


On Thu, Jul 15, 2021 at 2:48 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> She was imagining despite "the impossibility of ever belonging". What she
> was imagining were "the offer never clearly stated, the hand never fully
> dealt", in other words, what might have been.
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 15, 2021 at 6:09 AM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> The word “imagine,” here, doesn’t need an object. “Allowing herself to
>> imagine” can easily stand alone.
>>
>> But “the offer never clearly stated, the hand never fully dealt" would
>> not be its object, if it had one. The “offer” would refer to something
>> earlier stated (or hinted at), which might be that imagine’s object.  That
>> offer might be “the (im)possibility of ever belonging,” but an
>> impossibility is the opposite of an offer, right?   But  “the brief
>> revelation,” described in the vision of the the many lights she’s just
>> seen, might make sense as “imagine’s” object.
>>
>> David Morris
>> > > --
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 15, 2021 at 2:54 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks, Joseph.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jul 14, 2021 at 8:36 AM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> > I think that what you suggest  is the only logical way to read it if
>>> there
>>> > were a clear end to the sentence. To my thinking the ellipsis at the
>>> end
>>> > makes that assumption rather vague because those last three
>>> comma-separated
>>> > lines could be a further commentary on the whatever she does imagine.
>>> >   If so it becomes obvious that P intends to leave that object of the
>>> verb
>>> > unstated and perhaps impossible to get at, like so many of our
>>> longings and
>>> > thoughts.
>>> >
>>> > Secondary thought of no relevance to Mike Jing’s  practical question
>>> but
>>> > perhaps worth a bit of consideration) Soon after this passage Dally's
>>> > imagination and observation turn from the light of Venice which Hunter
>>> was
>>> > intrigued by, to the Venetian dark, the shadows; and it seems to this
>>> > reader her thoughts have more focus and clarity, seeing acts of
>>> violence
>>> > and abduction, as though these shadows are more real and consequential
>>> than
>>> > the inscrutable light, the paintable world that casts them.
>>> >
>>> > > On Jul 14, 2021, at 12:20 AM, Mike Jing <
>>> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>>> > wrote:
>>> > >
>>> > > P580.36-581.10   She wondered sometimes what he would have made of
>>> > American
>>> > > light. She had sat adrift in insomnia for hours watching fields of
>>> > windows
>>> > > lit and lampless, vulnerable flames and filaments by the thousands
>>> borne
>>> > > billowing as by waves of the sea, the broken rolling surfaces of the
>>> > great
>>> > > cities, allowing herself to imagine, almost surrendering to the
>>> > > impossibility of ever belonging, since childhood when she’d ridden
>>> with
>>> > > Merle past all those small, perfect towns, longed after the lights at
>>> > > creeksides and the lights defining the shapes of bridges over great
>>> > rivers,
>>> > > through church windows or trees in summer, casting shining parabolas
>>> down
>>> > > pale brick walls or haloed in bugs, lanterns on farm rigs, candles at
>>> > > windowpanes, each attached to a life running before and continuing
>>> on,
>>> > long
>>> > > after she and Merle and the wagon would have passed, and the mute
>>> land
>>> > > risen up once again to cancel the brief revelation, the offer never
>>> > clearly
>>> > > stated, the hand never fully dealt. . . .
>>> > >
>>> > > Here the object of "imagine" Is "the offer never clearly stated, the
>>> hand
>>> > > never fully dealt", is that correct?
>>> > > --
>>> > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> --
>>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>
>>