SLPAD - 29 & of course he goes on to add

[Mark Kohut]

I'm thinking Oedipa's chase after meaning is a chastening too far...

On Thu, Mar 23, 2023 at 5:08 AM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> how John Le Carré “upped the ante for the whole genre” - credit where
> credit’s due. Very true, but the appeal of all those historical scenes in
> UtR & V. is only partially from the spying and the Baedeker background. The
> contrast with Slothrop breaks away from spy craft, to mention the most
> obvious. But lots of other unique touches.
>
>
>
> “Most of it, happily, is chase scenes, for which I remain a dedicated
> sucker—it is one piece of puerility I am unable to let go of.”
>
> V. - check - chasing V. by Stencil, great Profane’s chase scene action
> onboard the USS Scaffold
>
> CoL49 - Oedipa’s of course chase after meaning thru the whole book, the
> Volkswagens when they steal the boat, sort of
>
> GR - Major Marvy after Slothrop underground
>
> M&D - ah, there’s gotta be one
>
> IV - the Vegas getaway by Doc Sportello
>
> BE - March & her ex with Maxine in the cigarette boat
>
>
> Porpentine - Hamlet I, v
> His father’s ghost refusing to describe the torments of Hell:
> “I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
> Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
> Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
> Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
> And each particular hair to stand on end,
> Like quills upon the fretful porpentine….”
>
> But also, it’s the name of an inn in The Comedy of Errors.
>
> & in Henry VI part 2, “[John Cade, under the name of John Mortimer] fought
> so long that his thighs with darts were almost like a sharp-quilled
> porpentine”
>
> & in Troilus & Cressida, Ajax warns Thersites, “Do not, porpentine, do not;
> my fingers itch”
>
> (To which Thersites replies, “I would thou didst itch from head to foot,
> and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in
> Greece.”
> Geez guys, get a room!)
>
>
>
> Moldweorp from Old Teutonic (so he’s the one who’s lurking and skulking for
> Germany?) for “mole” unintentionally anticipating the Le Carré usage.
>
> “ Less conscientiously, there is also an echo of the name of the reluctant
> spy character
>                Wormold, in Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana, then recently
> published”
>
>
>
> Interesting article on the Intro in Pynchon Notes from Terry Reilly, who
> seems less than thrilled with it, but brings in some worthwhile
> perspectives nevertheless.
>
> https://pynchonnotes.openlibhums.org/article/2563/galley/2956/download/
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>