SLPAD - 29 & of course he goes on to add

[Mark Kohut]

Yes,

Contrary to Poirier and that Reilly fellow, this intro showed how untired,
untiring intellectually, he had become.

Mark

On Thu, Mar 23, 2023 at 9:27 AM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Howdy all
>
> I'm re-reading Slow Learner. it's been a long time and I just finished
> Under the Rose. I would recommend anyone reading it to have a general
> idea/info of the novel Manon Lescaut and the Puccini opera.
> The thing that strikes me about Slow Learner is how once can appreciate
> Pynchon's progression from The Small Rain to The Secret Integration. You
> can see it starting to blossom in Entropy onwards. I thought early on when
> I first started to read Pynchon that he was a bit hard on himself with
> regards to these stories, but being an old fart, I can see his point. The
> Small Rain and Low-lands, though they have their charms, do include some
> scenes that are a bit cringeworthy--e.g., in Low-lands where a woman's
> corpse is hung by a man's ties out the window. Hadn't remembered that one.
> MMV wasnt even worthy of inclusion by the man himself and that speaks for
> itself (though there are elements in that story I like, too).
>
> If anything, it is nice to be reminded of him as a young guy and how he
> worked out the kinks and delivered on that promise shown in these stories
>
> rich
>
> 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
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>