Re: GR translation: each man’s wind

[Mike Jing]

Interesting stuff. Thanks, Mark, Michael and Laura.


On Wed, Jul 23, 2025 at 7:30 AM Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com> wrote:

> And a motor mouth is someone who talks incessantly, so wind and motor add
> up to a lot of verbiage.
>
> On Wed, Jul 23, 2025, 12:19 AM Michael Lee Bailey via Pynchon-l <
> pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Are you familiar with the vernacular phrase somebody is a “windbag”?
>> Or, long-winded?
>> Meaning loquacious
>>
>> You don’t hear it as often isolated as “wind” but occasionally excess
>> verbiage is referred to as “wind”
>>
>> This is what I think Pynchon means in context: all the people working
>> there are “behind” Pervitin - that is, they are taking those amphetamines
>>
>> Which give them the tendency to rattle on and on, and
>> Talk through each other’s “wind”
>>
>> Sent from [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/mail/home) for iOS
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 22, 2025 at 6:46 AM, Mike Jing <[
>> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com](mailto:On Tue, Jul 22, 2025 at 6:46 AM,
>> Mike Jing <<a href=)> wrote:
>>
>> > I'm not sure, it just seems strange to me that breath would be loud
>> enough
>> > to interfere with conversation. Or maybe it's not loudness that's at
>> issue
>> > here?
>> >
>> > On Tue, Jul 22, 2025 at 5:32 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >> If it is anything else, how does the analogy with motor work?...."wind
>> and
>> >> motor"???
>> >>
>> >> On Mon, Jul 21, 2025 at 8:38 PM Mike Jing <
>> gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> V521.41-522.5, P530.36-41 Well, this is stimulant talk here, yes
>> >>> Enzian’s
>> >>> been stuffing down Nazi surplus Pervitins these days like popcorn at
>> the
>> >>> movies, and by now the bulk of the refinery—named, incidentally, for
>> the
>> >>> famous discoverer of Oneirine—is behind them, and Enzian is on into
>> some
>> >>> other paranoid terror, talking, talking, though each man’s wind and
>> motor
>> >>> cuts him off from conversation.
>> >>>
>> >>> What does "wind" mean here? The published translation interpreted it
>> as
>> >>> "breath", which doesn't seem right to me.
>> >>> --
>> >>> 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
>>
>