GR translation: that dovetails inside you sharp as knives

[Mike Jing]

Now it finally makes sense. Thanks, Mark.


On Thu, Dec 4, 2025 at 9:57 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think Yes to verb use but the dissonance is worse.....Hopes for success
> and hopes for disaster dovetail and
> really pierce his insides....psychologically as physically
> expressed........tearing him apart....reminds me of Catullus in a similar
> but totally different
> two lines:   "I love and hate/ you ask how that can be;/ I do not know/but
> know it tortures me?
>
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 3, 2025 at 11:07 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> That helps a lot. Thanks, Robert.
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 4, 2025 at 11:46 AM Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > A dovetail is a joint, but to dovetail is to come together in a
>> > particularly tight and well-joined way. I think Pynchon is using it as a
>> > verb to express a clenching feeling in Slothrop's stomach.
>> >
>> > On Wed, Dec 3, 2025 at 10:44 PM Mike Jing <
>> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> >> I do know what a dovetail joint is. The OED definition for the verb:
>> >>
>> >> 1. transitive. To fit together or join by means of dovetails, or by a
>> >> similar method. Const. in, into, to.
>> >> 2. figurative. To unite compactly as if by dovetails; to adjust
>> exactly,
>> >> so
>> >> as to form a continuous whole.
>> >> 3. intransitive. To fit into each other, so as to form a compact and
>> >> harmonious whole or company.
>> >>
>> >> I might be overthinking, but none of them seems to quite fit here, so
>> I'm
>> >> wondering what was meant exactly.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Thu, Dec 4, 2025 at 6:07 AM Mike Weaver <mike.weaver at zen.co.uk>
>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> > Woodwork - dovetail joint.
>> >> >
>> >> > On 03/12/2025 20:20, Mike Jing wrote:
>> >> > > V676.37-677.1, P690.3-8   Which is why Slothrop now observes his
>> >> > coalition
>> >> > > with hopes for success and hopes for disaster about equally high
>> (and
>> >> no,
>> >> > > that doesn’t cancel out to apathy—it makes a loud dissonance that
>> >> > dovetails
>> >> > > inside you sharp as knives). It does annoy him that he can be so
>> >> divided,
>> >> > > so perfectly unable to come down on one side or another.
>> >> > >
>> >> > > What does "dovetail" mean here?
>> >> > > --
>> >> > > 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
>>
>