AtD translation: the distant reach of water-sky reflecting the German Sea

[Mike Weaver]

The trouble with this piece is the geography  is all wrong. Even 100 
years ago you wouldn't encounter the smell of the fens on the train 
between London and Cambridge, occasional waterlogged fields aren't the 
same at all, and you would have to be maybe 30 miles north of the city 
to get a noseful of ocean air, even with a powerful wind from that 
direction. Were the train nearing King's Lynn the description would be 
much more accurate. That aside 'water-sky' suggests that merging of sea 
and sky you get with grey skies over the North Sea. Having grown up near 
the Atlantic coast, I've always found the North Sea very dreary, greys 
predominating and so little blue.

Mike

On 10/03/2022 16:30, David Morris wrote:
> As with all descriptions like this with Pynchon, poetry tends to rule 
> over prose.  My feeling is that he is describing an experience cascade 
> of different senses felt as the car flies through the “green and 
> misty” English country.  And I think smells augmented by moist air 
> predominate.  That’s why the result is Lew’s stomach-spasms, being so 
> closely related to smell.  I think the “water-sky” might be referrence 
> to the smells of ocean air.
>
> David Morris
>
>     On 08/03/2022 06:17, Mike Jing wrote:
>     > P688.15-20   Only thing to do really was to try and take Renfrew
>     by surprise. On the way up to Cambridge once again, English country 
>
>     green and misty, booming past, brick courses inside the little
>     tunnels spinning by in helical purity, the smell of fens, the
>     distant reach of water-sky reflecting the German Sea, for the
>     first time in a good while Lew felt the desolate stomach-spasms of
>     exile, and found himself longing for Chicago, . . .
>     >
>     > What is the meaning of "water-sky" here?
>     >
>

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