AtD question

Thu Jan 11 10:37:01 UTC 2024

Dear Mr Bailey,

Thank you. That is quite a compliment coming from the lead *SL *exegete.

   In my doctoral thesis, I looked at the scene a bit, but kismet had not
provided me with everything yet. It was only fairly recently that I came
across the concept of a light cone and my mind jumped back to that scene.
And since light and science are such major themes in the book it seemed a
good fit. Also, we may note that TP has prepared the reader with both
serious and more playful bits earlier in the novel. On a more serious
level, the reader is given space to speculate that the Tunguska Event was
caused by a Tesla invention; this points forward (as the novel generally
points forward Against the Day) to much more real inventions of
devastating power and menace. And on a lighter and more theoretical note,
the character Dr. V. Ganeshi Rao, while talking math,disappears and
reappears, though somewhat changed (539). But that is just the science
side. The novel also leans heavily on the mystical and religious. And that
bit also came to me somewhat serendipitously. However, it'll have to wait.
And I'll gladly share it with the list.

  Let me add one thing. From what I have seen of the critical literature on
the novel, a major area has not been studied. Math looms large in AtD, and
although it apparently centers on Riemann, I would argue that in the
background is Poincaré's Conjecture (a compact 2-dimensional surface
without boundary is topologically homeomorphic to a 2-sphere if every loop
can be continuously tightened to a point. The Poincaré Conjecture asserts
that the same is true for 3-dimensional spaces). It was solved by Grigori
Perelman who first put up papers on arXiv in 2002 and 2003 although it was
not verified and recognised until 2006 - when AtD came out. That means that
in those years there was a lot of buzz in the math world about this. And
arXiv is part of Cornell U.
  That idea of contracting a loop to a single point, of bringing two points
on opposite sides of a loop, or along a segment of its arc, together,
provided Pynchon with a mathematical idea to exploit. A different way to
bring his hero back to his beloved.However, only reading it that way would
leave out the mystical angle of Shambala. Physics and math and mystical
powers work together to create anarchist miracles.

ciao
mc

On Thu, Jan 11, 2024 at 7:35 AM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
> >>
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>