CoL49 - 2nd section of chapter 5 - whoops, it was _Dharma Bums_

Thu Jul 4 11:59:45 UTC 2024

 So then we have to understand hubris and dramatic tragedy.                   D.
    On Thursday, July 4, 2024 at 07:03:03 AM EDT, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:  

 I remember that quote as though I had just fallen. One falls down on a
mountain.
Sometimes one then rolls...

On Thu, Jul 4, 2024 at 3:04 AM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> https://the-adventure-travel-network.com/adventure/2020/3/10/you-cant-fall-off-a-mountain
>
> Climber breaks it down, schooling me:
> A) I misquoted & misattributed
> B) have been snickering at that Kerouac quote for years but I guess what he
> said was sort of true:
>
> The quote, “Ah Japhy [aka Snyder] you taught me the final lesson of them
> all, you can’t fall off a mountain…” said Kerouac to Snyder on their way
> down the Matterhorn in Northern Yosemite. While this quote shows the
> playfulness of Kerouac trying to understand there is meaning in every
> moment of life if you are willing to listen. While scrambling to the top of
> the Matterhorn is a physical accomplishment, the quote takes the physical
> and becomes metaphorical. Once you have reached a goal or the top of a
> mountain, it can not be taken away from you.
>
> Just for fun, I am going to poke some holes in the quote. It is true, you
> can’t fall off a mountain, but you surely can fall down a cliff. Once we
> reach a goal, we can choose how we share our accomplishments. There is a
> right way and a wrong way, which has to do with our ego and how we
> accept/reject society's norms. If one decided to leap off a cliff, they
> would surely fall and… yup. Think about the people who accomplish something
> and take their sharing to far, the essentially jump off the cliff. A
> perfect example of the wrong way to come down the mountain. The irony in
> jumping off a cliff is the quote remains true, you can’t fall off the
> mountain because a mountain continues even after the cliff. Getting to the
> top of a mountain is only halfway, you still need to return safely.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 4, 2024 at 2:49 AM Michael Bailey <
> michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Questions:Why is it love and not capitalism that the founder of IA
> > believes has ruined his life?
> >
> >
> > The plot of his life has included career, advancement, and marriage. All
> > these things have been bestowed on him and his habits have been formed
> > around them, but he doesn’t really know how any of them work.
> >
> > Not surprisingly, his response to losing his job and wife and finding the
> > posthorn is a non sequitur:
> >
> > “Idly, he peeled off a stamp and saw suddenly the image of the muted post
> > horn, the skin of his hand showing clearly through the watermark. “A
> sign,”
> > he whispered, “is what it is.” If he’d been a religious man he would have
> > fallen to his knees. As it was, he only declared, with great solemnity:
> “My
> > big mistake was love. From this day I swear to stay off of love: hetero,
> > homo, bi, dog or cat, car, every kind there is. I will found a society of
> > isolates, dedicated to this purpose, and this sign, revealed by the same
> > gasoline that almost destroyed me, will be its emblem.” And he did”
> >
> > - a) there’s a lot about his job but almost nothing about having any
> > feelings for his wife
> >
> > - b) confronting wife and her new lover actually perks him up
> >
> > - c) so how is his one mistake love?
> >
> > - d) he reads an arbitrary meaning into the muted posthorn, showing the
> > same lack of understanding with which he used to read the specialized
> memos
> >
> > - e) he founds an organization based on a made-up interpretation based on
> > *nothing*, and in reaction against a feeling of love, when in all of his
> > words or actions there’s no sign of it
> >
> > - f) leaving unaddressed the only real fly in his life’s ointment: the
> > computer taking his job, which I guess you could blame on capitalism, but
> > wouldn’t it make as much sense to blame the computer?
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > The question arises - is this meant to be a “scherzo” sidelong view of
> AA?
> > - like some of the over-the-top satirical exploration around AA a few
> > years later in _Infinite Jest_?
> > - no, not for me anyway: yes, Oedipa does enjoy a drink and no, there’s
> > not a lot of condemnation of her for it, but rather the use of brand
> names
> > and drink names seems to imply an acceptance of drinking as a social
> > ritual.
> > - but there’s no denying the “scared-straight” potential of the imagery
> > around the drunken sailor
> > - hence I see no sign of attempts to do any kind of a take-down of AA
> > - I think maybe taking AA principles and applying them to love tickles
> the
> > same sort of mordant funny bone as putting mail in a waste can.
> >
> > — what it might be a takedown of, though, is specious “great moments of
> > insight”
> > - always reminds me of Kerouac in _Desolation Angels_ where he has the
> > bogus satori “you can’t fall down a mountain”
> > - patently untrue
> > - unimpressive movements to this day grow up around a charismatic leader
> > with some “great realization” and people retelling the tale
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Jul 2, 2024 at 6:37 AM J K Van Nort via Pynchon-l <
> > pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
> >
> >> Greetings,
> >> Sorry this is late.
> >> Summary:
> >> Oedipa's conversation continues with the Inamorati Anonymous gentleman.
> >> He explains their purpose and also the story of the founder, who
> >> contemplating suicide after the loss of his job and marriage has a
> >> revelation. The story of how the muted posthorn symbol became a for the
> >> group involves a Yoyodyne mid level administrator who loses his job, his
> >> wife, and his reason to live and just as he is about to kill himself in
> the
> >> same form as a Buddhist monk protesting Vietnam, he has a revelation
> that
> >> love is the problem. The gasoline has soaked a series of letters that he
> >> received (presumably) through W.A.S.T.E. which wipes the ink to reveal a
> >> watermark with the muted posthorn. He forms the IA and uses the muted
> >> posthorn as its symbol. The Isolate leaves her to go to the bathroom and
> >> never returns. She leaves the Greek Way and wanders the city, finding
> the
> >> posthorn symbol everywhere. She finds children dreaming that they are
> >> playing together, In a Mexican restaurant, she meets Jesus Arrabal, a
> >> Mexican anarchist she had met in Mazatlan with Pierce. He describes
> Pierce
> >> as the reason he has stayed with anarchy, as Pierce represents
> everything
> >> he despises. He describes a miracle as 'another world's intrusion into
> this
> >> one. She continues through the 'infected city' where she sees more
> examples
> >> of the posthorn, finally finding an old drunken sailor with the posthorn
> >> tattooed onto his hand. She comforts him, and he asks her to mail a
> letter
> >> to his wife through W.A.S.T.E., which she says she doesn't know how to
> use.
> >> He tells her she can find a location under the highway. She helps him to
> >> bed and imagines that he will die by having his cigarette ignite his
> >> mattress when he falls asleep.
> >>
> >> Questions:Why is it love and not capitalism that the founder of IA
> >> believes has ruined his life?Why would a member of the IA be getting
> drunk
> >> in a gay bar?Why does Oedipa feel despair when she realizes that "nobody
> >> around her has any sexual relevance" to her?How does the founding story
> of
> >> the Isolate at the gay bar compare with the drunken sailor grieving his
> >> wife? Why is that important?
> >>
> >> In solidarity,
> >> James
> >>
> >> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
> >> --
> >> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >>
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>
--
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