Not P but DFW: Richterish-looking sound wave

[J Tracy]

A good suggestion. 
I have admired Richter's work for many years and he is certainly well known among those interested in visual art. He does a lot of vertical and horizontal smears  Some of his work does have a pixellated look as a result. I do not recall single wave like curves so  the context pushes me toward sound-wave type curves. Some of the smears  in Richters work do look like seismic or sonic wave patterns though not with a distinctive high point. .I don’t know if that is what his paintings looked like at that time. Maybe Wallace actually intended that mental convergence where either association works, especially combined with the image itself. Usually a reference like that is targeted at a broad readership 
From wikipedia on Richter the earthquake dude:  "In 1931, Kiyoo Wadati <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiyoo_Wadati> showed how he had measured, for several strong earthquakes in Japan, the amplitude of the shaking observed at various distances from the epicenter. He then plotted the logarithm of the amplitude against the distance and found a series of curves that showed a rough correlation with the estimated magnitudes of the earthquakes.[23] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_scale#cite_note-23> Richter resolved some difficulties with this method[24] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_scale#cite_note-24> and then, using data collected by his colleague Beno Gutenberg <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beno_Gutenberg>, he produced similar curves, confirming that they could be used to compare the relative magnitudes of different earthquakes.[25] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_scale#cite_note-25>" 

"he produced similar curves”   is the relevant line.

 

> On Feb 16, 2026, at 2:02 PM, Corbeau Castrum via Pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
> 
> Perhaps Mike could identify some specific Gerhard Richter paintings that might qualify for "Richterish" in this context?