GR translation: Around the bloom

[Michael Bailey]

As I look at the poem, more and more it seems Pointsman is elaborating
Pavlov’s view on aging, developing the metaphor as a way of valorizing
(because he himself is old) the concept of how older minds tend to focus on
one thing at a time, to the exclusion of extraneous though pleasant
sensations which younger minds need not exclude…

- a phenomenon which more objectively could be viewed as maybe
unreasonable, like an idee fixe

- and a possible explanation for one of the weaknesses of gerontocracy




On Fri, Nov 29, 2024 at 5:23 AM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> It’s the primary meaning, but the passage develops a sense that “paying
> attention to something makes it bloom in your mind, while the rest of the
> surroundings tend to fade”
>
> At the end of the poem, a bomb blast in a city is referred to as a bloom,
> whereas lights in windows having been turned off all around in observance
> of blackout demonstrate the “fade.”
>
> Pointsman’s poetry elaborates on his and Pavlov’s concepts of neurology,
> taking off from a Pavlov lecture quoted right before the poem:
>
> “Ordinarily in our behavior, we react not singly, but complexly, to fit
> the ever present contents of our environment. In old people,” Pavlov was
> lecturing at the age of 83, “the matter is altogether different.
> Concentrating on one stimulus we exclude by negative induction other
> collateral and simultaneous stimuli because they often do not suit the
> circumstances, are not complementary reactions in the given setting.”
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 24, 2024 at 2:18 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> V226.23-30, P229.13-20
>> Thus [Pointsman never shows these excursions of his to
>> anyone], reaching for some flower on my table,
>> I know the cool mosaic of my room
>> Begin its slow, inhibitory dissolve
>> Around the bloom, the stimulus, the need
>> That brighter burns, as brightness, quickly sucked
>> From objects all around, now concentrates
>> (Yet less than blinding), focuses to flame.
>>
>> Here the word "bloom" means "flower", is that correct?
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>