AtD question

[Michael Bailey]

You’ve obviously put some thought into this (-;

Thanks, Matthew - I hope your presentation will be available to the hoi
polloi at some point.




On Tue, Jan 9, 2024 at 7:50 AM matthew cissell <mccissell at gmail.com> wrote:

> Howdy Folks,
>
> Belated Happy New year. I'm glad some of you have taken interest in this
> very strange part of the book. I plan to present on this at the upcoming
> IPW in Serbia in June.
>
> First, let's try to sort things out with time and place. Kit and Dally
> have been star-crossed lovers through much  of the book, coming together
> only to be separated. It is now very close to the end of the book and Kit
> and Dally are in Venice where Kit has taken up dive bomber work with Renzo
> (starting to look a bit like Gabriele D'Annunzio?). Dally doesn't approve
> and they have an argument. On return from a mission he finds a note: "*I'm
> going to Paris*." (1074) This is when we read that she sees Policarpe.
> The line about "back in Belgium" is a bit confusing because after he says
> that the peace is just an illusion, he then says, "For a moment I thought I
> had seen your former husband."  We then read, "In fact he had. Kit had
> returned to Paris *unexpectedly*, after some time in Lwów." We then get
> the analepsis that explains: Dally left and Kit kept fighting until, "one
> day the War was over". He meets an algebraist (E. Percy Movay) and goes to
> the "now-defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire" where he meets a circle of
> mathematicians at the Scottish Cafe. This brings him back into contact with
> Prof. Vanderjuice. (The Prof. explains that he wanted to kill Vibe, and was
> rescued by the Chums -  one of the very few times that the two narrative
> trajectories cross and interact. Normally, the world of the Chums does not
> intersect the Traverse world.)
> So, Kit is in Lwow/ Lviv. And one day Vanderjuice vanishes. "Kit went down
> to the Glowny Dworzec and got on a train and headed west, though soon he
> got off and went across the tracks onto another platform and waited for a
> train going east..." So he is yo-yoing. "He would come to for brief
> intervals, and then go back inside a regime of starvation and hallucination
> and mental absence." (1080) He apparently goes through the Iron Gates
> (Belgrade) and later Lake Baikal (Russia). "From this precise spot along
> the shoreline it was possible to "see" the far shore a city, crystalline,
> redemptive." (Was this Shambala?) He starts thinking about Dally.
> "After some weeks of this, he began to be visited by a sort of framed
> shadow suspended in the empty air, a transparent doorway, approaching him
> at a speed he knew he would not always be able to avoid." (1080) It is not
> clear exactly where he is.
> "At last one day, still hesitant, he decided to approach it - might then,
> in fright, have lost his balance, and seized all at once as if by gravity,
> he toppled into the curiously orthogonal opening, exclaiming "What's this,"
> as to the astonishment of onlookers he was turned to shimmering
> transparency, dwindling into a sort of graceful cone and swept through its
> point into what appeared to be a tiny or perhaps only distant window of
> bright plasma. Kit, on the other hand,had remained the same size...."
> So there are on-lookers and they perceive events one way and Kit perceives
> them quite differently. This is exactly what Einstein first theorized, and
> now has become our understanding of what happens as one enters a black
> hole.
> And then he is in Paris in a hotel room of Lord Overlunch. Lord O. is in
> town for a crying of stamps; he explains that Kit was in Shambala,
> apparently on a stamp. Kit says he wasn't to which Lord O. responds "Well,
> well. A twin perhaps." When Kit inquires as to how he arrived, Lord O.
> simply says, "It's the way people reappear these days." So it is far from
> clear what has caused Kit to cross space/time to be in Paris. In fact it is
> no more clear than how Slothrop starts to dissipate and disappear.
> Moreover, I place this ending beside GR's in terms of baffling authorial
> practice; in comparison the antagonists of other Pynchon novels have rather
> comprehensible exits from the narrative scene as the curtain comes down.
> (The section has a number of elements that tie it to other Pynchon novels,
> which is clearly on purpose.)
>
> Pynchon could have put Kit on a train back to Paris to be reunited with
> Dally, but that would be lazy and almost as unoriginal as riding off into
> the sunset. I argue that his solution draws on two things that thematically
> run through the book (science and religion) but that the sources come from
> outside the book as well. However, I'll wait until after the conference to
> share all that. I will say this: the cone is very important.
>
> Oh, and if our amazing translator Mike Jing is reading, I will add that I
> just came across a use of that concept in the second book of the
> "Three-body Problem" trilogy (The Dark Forest). In one scene (p218-9) a
> scientist explains the concept of a light cone and says, "It's impossible
> for people outside the cone to comprehend events taking place inside the
> cone" To this the other character responds, "Fate lies within the light
> cone." If TP read that line, I'm sure he thought it brilliant.
>
> ciao
> mc otis
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 8, 2024 at 5:16 AM Michael Bailey <
> michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> So, way late in the book, and *after* Kit and Dally separated -
>>
>> Thank you Mike, and everyone on the thread (Matthew for originating)
>>
>> It’s actually a really cool section and I’d forgotten about it, or maybe
>> didn’t really read it attentively at all before.
>>
>> Kit meets up in Lwów with - ah, spoiler alert
>>
>>
>>
>> Professor Vanderjuice & they talk about the Zermelo Axiom & in fact it’s
>> so
>> good I think tomorrow, I’ll start a “reference chasing thread” for those
>> few pages
>>
>> (Takin’ a break from Flange for a minute)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 3, 2024 at 12:23 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > I went back and reread Part Four and Part Five. It turns out that some
>> > sort of “teletransportation” did happen to Kit, although not from the
>> Far
>> > East back to Paris, but from Lwów, Poland. He somehow ended up in the
>> hotel
>> > room of Lord Overlunch, a stamp collector, who told him he was on a
>> > Shambhala postage stamp. This happened in Part Five (p1080-1081), after
>> Kit
>> > and Dally separated, and hinted at some kind of reunion.
>> >
>> > Before that, after leaving Fleetwood without saying goodbye, Kit somehow
>> > trekked to Constantinople:
>> >
>> > “Kit as a matter of fact was already on the run. He had been living in
>> > Constantinople, tending bar at the Hôtel des Deux Continents, off the
>> > Grande Rue over on the European or honkytonk side of the Golden Horn in
>> > Pera, long enough almost to’ve come to believe his life had found its
>> > equilibrium at last. Folks out here talked about fate, but for Kit it
>> was a
>> > matter of stillness.
>> >
>> > It had taken him a while, from Kazakh Upland to Kirghiz Steppe to
>> Caspian
>> > Depression, short hops in little steamers along the Anatolian coast, the
>> > invisible City ahead of him gripping him ever more surely in its field,
>> as
>> > he felt the weight of reverence, of history, the nervous bright edge of
>> > revolution, around the final cape and into the Bosphorus, the palaces
>> and
>> > small harbors and mosques and ship traffic, beneath the Galata Tower,
>> > docking at last at Eminönü.”
>> >
>> > Until he helped an enemy of the C.U.P. and had to leave for Buda-Pesth
>> in
>> > a hurry. (p911-912)
>> >
>> >
>> > On Sat, Nov 11, 2023 at 5:05 AM Michael Bailey <
>> > michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Let’s see, I never did connect Kit’s travels very well:
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Kit and Yashmeen scarper from Göttingen together on an ostensible
>> mission
>> >> to the Far East for the T.W.I.T.S…
>> >>
>> >> Meet up with Reef in a sanatorium in Switzerland
>> >>
>> >> Kit takes off with Reef to try to kill Vibe in Italy
>> >>
>> >> Yashmeen is called back to London
>> >>
>> >> Kit & Reef fail to kill Vibe; Kit continues on eastward to Trieste,
>> >> carrying a letter from Yashmeen to her
>> >> father (who’s in the East)
>> >>
>> >> On to Bucharest, Baku, then there’s some riding on the Trans-Caspian
>> >> railway … to Kashgar (as of 2023
>> >> it’s in western China)
>> >>
>> >> Yashmeen’s father, Auberon Halfcourt, is living a diplomat/spy’s life &
>> >> facing off frequently with his Russian counterpart, Colonel Prokladka
>> >>
>> >> Halfcourt sends Kit to Siberia in the company of Lieutenant Prance…He’s
>> >> overawed by Lake Baikal…
>> >>
>> >> To Irkutsk, where they get a bunch of counterfeit coins from a British
>> >> agent named Poundstock, to take & circulate in the Tunguska region
>> >>
>> >> After the Tunguska event they go to Tuva & hear the throat-singers…they
>> >> sort of discern that the T.W.I.T.S no longer care what they do…they
>> >> separate
>> >>
>> >> Prance meets & flies off with the Chums
>> >>
>> >> Kit takes up with a band of woodchoppers
>> >>
>> >> Sees Fleetwood Vibe, catches up with family news, then they spend an
>> >> uneasy
>> >> night dreaming of killing each other
>> >>
>> >> After which - “[Fleetwood] looked over, through the wind-beaten
>> confusion,
>> >> at where Kit’s bedroll should have been. But Kit had left sometime in
>> the
>> >> night, as if taken by the wind.”
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Next time we see Kit, he’s on a Wagons-Lits train east of Budapest,
>> >> heading
>> >> for Paris - & at a brief stop in Szeged, sees Dally on the Orient
>> Express
>> >> going the other way, about to be abducted…
>> >>
>> >> He saves her from her would-be captors and they become lovers.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> So yes, there’s a gap. Whether it’s teleportation that brings Kit back
>> >> from
>> >> Asia into Europe and onto the train, one cannot say for certain - nor
>> that
>> >> it isn’t.
>> >>
>> >> It’s like he goes further & further into the parts of the world less
>> >> familiar (to Westerners) and then - like in Pac-Man - goes off the
>> edge of
>> >> the board and comes back in on the other side.
>> >>
>> >> Or - to use the yoyo metaphor from _V._ - he does some elaborate
>> tricking
>> >> in Asia, walking the dog etc, and then at just the right moment, the
>> >> attraction of Dally pulls him rapidly into a pericheir.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Sat, Nov 11, 2023 at 3:37 AM Mike Jing <
>> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> > I haven't touched AtD for a while and may have forgotten, but I don't
>> >> > remember such a "teletransportation" taking place anywhere in the
>> book.
>> >> As
>> >> > far as I can tell, Kit met Dally by chance on his way back from the
>> Far
>> >> > East, and they went back to Italy together and got married. But they
>> >> > eventually separated and Dally went to live in Paris, while Kit
>> >> remained in
>> >> > Italy.
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > On Thu, Nov 9, 2023 at 4:44 AM matthew cissell <mccissell at gmail.com>
>> >> > wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> > > Howdy folks,
>> >> > >
>> >> > > Maybe y'all can help me with something. I'm pretty behind on recent
>> >> > Pynchon
>> >> > > critical writing and I'm trying to find out if anything has been
>> >> written
>> >> > on
>> >> > > a certain subject. My problem is that I'm not finding much but I
>> >> suspect
>> >> > I
>> >> > > may not be getting good search results. (I've checked Orbit but
>> came
>> >> > across
>> >> > > nothing relevant.)
>> >> > >
>> >> > > My question is: does anyone know of any articles or essays that
>> deal
>> >> with
>> >> > > Kit's "teletransportation" from the Far East back to Paris at the
>> end
>> >> of
>> >> > > the AtD? It strikes me that heaps has been written about Slothrop
>> as
>> >> he
>> >> > > fades from (into?) the narrative of GR and yet little attention
>> >> appears
>> >> > to
>> >> > > have been given to Kit's rather perplexing instant transport
>> through
>> >> > > space-time.
>> >> > >
>> >> > > ciao
>> >> > > mc otis
>> >> > > --
>> >> > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >> > >
>> >> > --
>> >> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >> >
>> >> --
>> >> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >>
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>