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

[Mike Jing]

Thanks, Mike and David.


On Thu, Mar 10, 2022 at 1:11 PM Mike Weaver <mike.weaver at zen.co.uk> wrote:

> 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?
>> >
>>
>
>
> <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient> Virus-free.
> www.avast.com
> <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient>
> <#m_-7986757515926379033_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
>