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From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 8:18 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3433
>
> pynchon-l-digest Tuesday, July 22 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3433
>
>
>
> Re: VLVL2 (1) Missed Communications: Beginnings
> VLVL2 (1) Robberds essay
> NPPF: CANTO ONE (2) on behalf of Charles
> NPPF: CANTO ONE (1) on behalf of Charles
> Re: VLVL2 (1) Robberds essay
> NPPF - Canto One - Sherlock Holmes
> Re: VLVL2 (1) Ellison, "one, only one of each"
> Re: Work
> NPPF: CANTO ONE NOTES on behalf of Charles
> Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
> Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
,
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:13:00 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: CANTO ONE (2) on behalf of Charles
>
> Great Bear - Ursa major, also Big Dipper.....
>
> "The constellation Ursa Major contains the group of stars commonly called
> the Big Dipper. The handle of the Dipper is the Great Bear's tail and the
> Dipper's cup is the Bear's flank. The Big Dipper is not a constellation
> itself, but an asterism, which is a distinctive group of stars. Another
> famous asterism is the Little Dipper in the constellation Ursa Minor.
>
> If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you can use the Big Dipper to find
> all sorts of important stars:
>
> * If you draw an imaginary line from Merak through Dubhe out of the cup of
> the dipper (see the picture above) and continue five times as far as Dubhe
> is from Merak, you will arrive at Polaris, the North Star.
>
> * Now draw an imaginary line along the handle of the dipper and continue
the
> arc across the sky. Eventually this will lead you to the very bright star,
> Arcturus in the constellation BoЖtes. If you continue the arc further, you
> will reach Spica in Virgo. You can remember this by saying "Arc to
Arcturus
> and Speed to Spica."
>
> *If you follow the other two stars in the cup of the dipper (Megrez and
> Phecda) down below the cup, you will get to Regulus.html, the brightest
star
> in Leo.
>
> According to some Native American legends, the bowl of the Big Dipper is a
> giant bear and the stars of the handle are three warriors chasing it. The
> constellation is low in the sky in autumn evening sky, so it was said that
> the hunters had injured the bear and its blood caused the trees to change
> color to red.
>
> Although the whole of Ursa Major is difficult to see without very dark
> skies, the Big Dipper is one of the most recognizable patterns in the
> northern sky. In other cultures it was identified as a wagon or cart, a
> plow, a bull's thigh, and (to the Chinese) the government.
>
> The Big Dipper was also a very important part of the Underground Railroad
> which helped slaves escape from the South before the Civil War. There were
> songs spread among the slave population which included references to the
> "Drinking Gourd." The songs said to follow it to get to a better life.
This
> veiled message for the slaves to flee northward was passed along in the
form
> of songs since a large fraction of the slave population was illiterate. "
>
>
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Ursa_Major.ht
> ml
>
>
>
> more:
>
> " The name "The Great Bear" seems to have been assigned to the
constellation
> in antiquity, due to its northern latitudes. Only a prodigious bear could
> live in such a northerly clime. Interestingly, a number of North American
> tribes (Algonquin, Iroquois, Illinois, and Narragansett, among possibly
> others) also associated the constellation with a gigantic bear.
>
> In Greek mythology Callisto, daughter of King Lycaon, was chosen as a
young
> child to be one of Artemis's companions. Now Artemis was Apollo's sister,
> patroness of childbirth and protector of babies and of suckling animals.
The
> one thing she prized above all was her chastity; she even asked Zeus for
> eternal virginity, which he granted.
>
> Artemis gathered about her a number of young nymphs. Reflecting her own
vows
> on chastity, she also required complete fidelity from these young women
> (girls actually, who would grow into womanhood). One of these was
Callisto.
> Zeus had the habit of seducing young maidens, and eventually he got around
> to Callisto. When Artemis discovered that Callisto was pregnant, she took
> her revenge. Artemis loved to hunt; she would take her revenge in the
chase.
> So she changed Callisto into a bear. (Remember that Artemis is the same
> goddess that caught Actaeon watching her bath. She turned him into a stag
> then set his own hounds on him. They ripped him to pieces.)
>
> So Artemis's plan was to have Callisto, as a bear, hunted down and killed.
> But Zeus took pity, and sent Callisto to the heavens, keeping the same
form
> of a bear. Her son Arcas would grow up to be the ancestral founder of the
> Arcadians, before he too joined his mother in the heavens as Ursa Minor. "
>
> http://www.dibonsmith.com/uma_con.htm
>
> but for those who can overlook poor editing, I like this version better...
>
> " Mythological Background:
>
> According to greek mythology one day the Godfather Zeus saw a beautiful
> girl, the nymph Kallisto, and fell in love with her. But Kallisto was one
of
> the virgin followers of the virgin goddess Diana, the huntress. So Zeus
took
> the form of Diana to approach Kallisto and managed it to make love to her.
> Once Diana saw what had happened (Kallisto was obviously pregnant, when
> Diana and all her nymphs take a bath), she send Kallisto away. Even worse,
> Hera, the wife of Zeus heard about Kallisto and her now born son Arkas and
> become terribly jealous. In her anger she turned her into a bear.
> Years later Kallisto, still a bear, met her son Arkas, but was of course
not
> recognized by him. In his fear Arkas tried to kill the bear, but Zeus
> himself took both of them an placed them between the stars and made them
two
> neighbouring constellations.
>
> When Hera saw Kallisto glittering with the stars she furiously went down
to
> the ocean to meet Thethys and Oceanos. She told them the story and ask a
> favour: that the bear never ever is able to reach the water. And indeed,
as
> said above, in the northern hemisphere, the constellation of the Great
Bear
> never touches the ocean. (This story can be found in "Metamorphoses, book
> II" by the roman poet Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 BC to 17 AC). Its's
an
> intersting that he speaks of the seven stars of the Bear. This implies
that
> in those times just the stars forming the asterism of the Big Dipper were
> meant to form the bear. Though these stars are even nowadays called the
> Great Bear, the constellation is a bit more extended.) "
>
> http://www.seds.org/Maps/Stars_en/Fig/ursamajor.html
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:12:54 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1) on behalf of Charles
>
> Waxwing - "Cedar Waxwings are sleek, elegant birds with long wings, rather
> short tails, and a crest. They have a short, broad bill and short legs.
Both
> sexes look alike. Adults are buffy brown on the head and back. The brown
> color shades to pale yellow on the belly and to gray brown on the back,
> fading further to slate gray on the rump and upper tail. The tail is
tipped
> with a yellow band. The undertail coverts are white. The legs and feet are
> black. Adults have a narrow, black mask outlined in white that extends
over
> the face to end behind each eye in a point. The chin is black. At the end
of
> each secondary feather, the shaft is extended as a small, red, wax-like
> appendage. The number of these waxy appendages increases with age, until
> adult plumage is attained."
>
> http://birds.cornell.edu/BOW/CEDWAX/
>
>
> Larches - (from the OED) "Well known coniferous tree native of the Alps,
> which is largely cultivated in this country (UK). It's timber is tough and
> durable. It yields Venetian Turpentine, bark is used in tanning."
>
> There are local american varieties.....
>
>
>
> Torquated - (OED)
>
> 1) Wearing a torque
>
> 2) Formed as or like a torque, twisted from a narrow strip or band
>
> Torque - A collar, necklace, bracelet or similar ornament consisting of a
> twisted narrow band or strip, usually of precious metal, worn especially
by
> the ancient Gauls and Britons
>
> Torque - Twisting or rotary force
>
> Pheasant - Medium sized game bird, native to China stocked pretty much all
> over the globe. The most common game variety is the Ring Necked, so called
> for its distinctive collar....Hunters will tell you that pheasants always
> run towards the sun......
>
> Grouse - Small game bird, native to N. America......Common variety is
> referred to as Ruffed. The ruff is a "collar" of feathers around the neck
> which the grouse can expand in order to intimidate either other male
> grouses, or really stupid predators. Unlike the pheasant, the grouse is
> fiercely territorial. Males are in the habit of standing on tree stumps
and
> "drumming", issuing a distinctive percussive sound by means unknown to
your
> correspondent.....
>
> more: http://www.ruffedgrousesociety.org/ruffed_facts.asp
>
> Sherlock Holmes - Duh.........From The Return of Sherlock Holmes - The
> Adventure of the Empty House....
>
> Holes is believed to have been killed by Morioraty at Reichenbach Fall.
But
> bowing to popular demand, Doyle brought Sherlock back from the
> dead......below is the passage where Watson first meets the phantom...
>
> " A tall, thin man with coloured glasses, whom I strongly suspected of
being
> a plain-clothes detective, was pointing out some theory of his own, while
> the others crowded round to listen to what he said. I got as near him as I
> could, but his observations seemed to me to be absurd, so I withdrew again
> in some disgust. As I did so I struck against an elderly deformed man, who
> had been behind me, and I knocked down several books which he was
carrying.
> I remember that as I picked them up I observed the title of one of them,
> "The Origin of Tree Worship," and it struck me that the fellow must be
some
> poor bibliophile who, either as a trade or as a hobby, was a collector of
> obscure volumes. "
>
> Later....
>
> "
>
> "I stood up and examined the rocky wall behind me. In your picturesque
> account of the matter, which I read with great interest some months later,
> you assert that the wall was sheer. This was not literally true. A few
small
> footholds presented themselves, and there was some indication of a ledge.
> The cliff is so high that to climb it all was an obvious impossibility,
and
> it was equally impossible to make my way along the wet path without
leaving
> some tracks. I might, it is true, have reversed my boots, as I have done
on
> similar occasions, but the sight of three sets of tracks in one direction
> would certainly have suggested a deception."
>
>
http://www.mastertexts.com/Doyle_Arthur_Conan/The_Return_of_Sherlock_Holmes/
> Chapter00001.htm
>
> Shagbark (Hickory) - N. American hardwood bearing
> "drupes"..........Shagbark, so named for its distinctively shaggy
> appearance, is the fuel of choice for southern barbeque fanatics......
>
> Stillicide - (OED) A falling of water in drops, a succession of drops.
> Dropping of water from the eaves of a house..
>
> Vermiculated - (from Webster's Unabridged) Wormlike in shape. Covered
with
> wormlike elevations:marked with irregular fine lines of color or with
> irregular wavy impressed lines like worm tracks....
>
> Theolatry - (OED) worship of deity or deities
>
> Iridule - curiously this word makes neither the OED, nor
Websters.........."
> a rainbow reflected in a cloud from a thunderstorm in a distant valley "
>
> Dr. Sutton's light - see Canto Four lines 985-6
>
> "but it's not bedtime yet. The sun attains
>
> Old Dr. Sutton's last two windowpanes.."
>
>
>
> Lemniscate - (OED) [lemniscotus - adorned with ribbons] The designation of
> certain closed curves having a general resemblance to the figure 8.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 14:26:03 +0100
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:27:12 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF - Canto One - Sherlock Holmes
>
> Some more on the Holmes reference to add to what Charles posted:
>
> ln 27-28: "Was he in _Sherlock Holmes_, the fellow whose / Tracks pointed
> back when he reversed his shoes?"
>
> A manifestation of an important theme in PF, the commingling of art and
> life, specifically the intrusion of one into the other. Here a character
> from literature leaves a trail across Shade's image; the footprints left
by
> a pheasant are elevated into art: "Torquated beauty, sublimated grouse"
(ln
> 25), and preserved in literature.
>
> There is no "Case of the Reversed Footprints" from Arthur Conan Doyle, but
> in "The Final Problem" (1893), intended to be the last Holmes story,
Watson
> discovers evidence at the top of Reichenbach Falls indicating that Holmes
> and Moriarty had struggled there and fallen over the edge together,
> presumably to die at the bottom. In describing the scene where the
struggle
> took place, Watson writes:
>
> "The blackish soil is kept forever soft by the incessant drift of spray,
and
> a bird would leave its tread upon it. Two lines of footmarks were clearly
> marked along the farther end of the path, both leading away from me. There
> were none returning." (Doyle, "The Final Problem")
>
> http://www.citsoft.com/holmes/memoirs/final.problem.txt
>
> Note the contrast between Shade's white snow and Doyle's blackish soil;
note
> also of course the bird's tread across it.
>
> In 1903 Doyle decided to resurrect Holmes for a new series of stories, the
> first of which appeared in Collier's as "The Adventure of the Empty
House".
> In order to explain his return, Sherlock says to Watson, "Well, then,
about
> that chasm. I had no serious difficulty in getting out of it, for the very
> simple reason that I never was in it." He goes on to explain:
>
> "I had little doubt that I had come to the end of my career when I
perceived
> the somewhat sinister figure of the late Professor Moriarty standing upon
> the narrow pathway which led to safety. I read an inexorable purpose in
his
> gray eyes. I exchanged some remarks with him, therefore, and obtained his
> courteous permission to write the short note which you afterwards
received.
> I left it with my cigarette-box and my stick, and I walked along the
> pathway, Moriarty still at my heels. When I reached the end I stood at
bay.
> He drew no weapon, but he rushed at me and threw his long arms around me.
He
> knew that his own game was up, and was only anxious to revenge himself
upon
> me. We tottered together upon the brink of the fall. I have some
knowledge,
> however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more
> than once been very useful to me. I slipped through his grip, and he with
a
> horrible scream kicked madly for a few seconds, and clawed the air with
both
> his hands. But for all his efforts he could not get his balance, and over
he
> went. With my face over the brink, I saw him fall for a long way. Then he
> struck a rock, bounded off, and splashed into the water."
>
> Watson is incredulous, and says, "But the tracks! [...] I saw, with my own
> eyes, that two went down the path and none returned." Holmes then
describes
> how it had occurred to him that it would be useful to fake his death and
> plot to destroy his enemies in secret. In order to leave the scene and
> create that illusion, he says:
>
> "The cliff is so high that to climb it all was an obvious impossibility,
and
> it was equally impossible to make my way along the wet path without
leaving
> some tracks. I might, it is true, have reversed my boots, as I have done
on
> similar occasions, but the sight of three sets of tracks in one direction
> would certainly have suggested a deception. On the whole, then, it was
best
> that I should risk the climb. It was not a pleasant business, Watson."
> (Doyle, "The Adventure of the Empty House")
>
> http://www.citsoft.com/holmes/return/empty.house.txt
>
> Obviously much of this serves the Shadean internal author theory.... Note
> also the "inexorable purpose in [Moriarty's] gray eyes." See line 29:
"All
> colors made me happy: even gray." Gray is the color associated with
Gradus.
>
> akaJasperFidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 10:45:22 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: CANTO ONE NOTES on behalf of Charles
>
> A literal synopsis
>
> Not required.........
>
> The poem opens with the waxwing hitting the windowpane (some suggest that
> the waxwing in question has been picked up by the boy Shade), and a brief
> digression about the curious effects of reflection and refraction which
> takes the reader from summer (the season when the waxwing gorges on
seasonal
> berries) to the first snowfall. (lines 1-12)
>
> The day of snowfall turns into night, and in the morning a set of tracks
are
> discovered. They lead "left to right",
> "a dot, and arrow pointing back, repeat:
> Dot, arrow pointing back....A pheasant's feet"
> This recalls a technique perhaps employed by someone "in Sherlock
> Holmes".....(lines 13-28)
>
> Shade describes himself as a child with a photographic memory, with a
> fascination for colors, "even gray"....(lines 29-40)
>
> He comments on his vision, previously so keen, beginning to fail him,
> "maybe some quirk in space
> has caused a fold or furrow......" (lines 41-48)
>
> Shade describes his fondness for a highly articulated hickory. The season
> has shifted to spring, Hazel's death is obliquely hinted at - and here
come
> the butterflies....(lines 49-57)
>
> There begins to arise a suggestion that Shade is engaged in a "dialogue"
> with Hazel's ghost
> "the house itself is much the same", as he describes changes made to it
over
> the years. The stiff vane "so often visited by the naive" has been
replaced
> by "TV's huge paperclip" - where the mockingbird now loiters.....(lines
> 58-70)
>
> Shade recounts how he, himself, was an infant when his parents, "both
> ornithologists" died. His memory of them is distorted by his inability to
> see nothing of them but their "virtues".........[note - the closing
couplet
> scans - I would say "effectively", but for what appears to be the first
time
> - - it "reads" awkwardly - this is of no particular importance, only a
> curious lapse..cfa] (lines 71-88)
>
> The tour, now of the childhood home, continues - we are told of a maid and
a
> reasonably large immediate family - there is a hint of "papism" in the
> blood....(lines 79-85)
>
> The 'spinster' aunt , Maud, a poet, artist, and Red Sox fan, is
introduced.
> Her metier appears to be combining the common with the 'grotesque'. Her
room
> has been left "intact".....(lines 86 - 98)
>
> Shade is a precocious atheist, with, paradoxically, no faith in "free
will"
> - - a determinist, maybe a fatalist. His love of nature is put in terms
> gustatory....(lines 99- 104)
>
> He discusses his "sensitivity" to natures abundant colors, its wonders -
> while hinting at an outside agency using such to divert "us" from our
> confinement. The season has shifted to summer....(lines 105 - 114)
>
> Moving on to fall, the young Shade ponders the "relativity" of time, and
> the similarity of its "shape" to the closing wings of a butterfly - its
> fatal consequences.....(lines 115-124)
>
> Shade contrasts himself with the "vulgarian" who only sees the stars when
> micturating. As a boy, Shade, it seems, only looked up, unable to avoid
any
> obstacles in his path. He was "asthmatic, lame and fat" - predictably
> unathletic...(lines 125-130)
>
> The waxwing episode is recalled, but this time, it is not "false azure",
but
> "feigned remoteness". He refers to a unique sense (given that he
stipulates
> to the same five as everyone else enjoys - we must assume that the unique
> refers to his "vision"). He dreams " I played with other chaps", but
insists
> that he never "envied" other boys, except for "the miracle of a lemniscate
> left.....by nonchalantly deft bicycle tires...." [line 139 is broken by
> what I would call a caesura (Elaine - HELP!), the first such in the
> poem](lines 131-139)
>
> Shade describes a day when he was 11. While playing inside with a
> "clockwork toy - a tin wheelbarrow pushed by a tin boy" he suffers some
> form of seizure, defined by a "sudden sunburst" in his head........(lines
> 139 - 146)
>
> The seizure is described. "Time and place have become confused"......your
> correspondent assumes any and all similarities to an LSD, or Psillosybin,
> experience are entirely coincidental......(lines 147-156)
>
> These "seizures" occurr every day for the course of one winter, and then
> disappear. Shade grows healthier and learns how to swim. However, "the
> wonder (of these epsiodes) lingers and the shame remains.....(lines
> 167-176)
>
>
> love,
> cfa
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 08:01:42 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> - ---Charles:
> >
> > Iridule - curiously this word makes neither the OED, nor
Websters.........."
> a rainbow reflected in a cloud from a thunderstorm in a distant valley "
>
> This definition is from the words in the poem? I guess it's a made-up
word
> combining "irridescent" with the diminutive "ule." I think the poem
suggests
> it is in a droplet of water.
>
> > Lemniscate - (OED) [lemniscotus - adorned with ribbons] The designation
of
> certain closed curves having a general resemblance to the figure 8.
>
> As Kinbote comments, it's hard to figure out what this figure has to do
with a
> bicycle (but the image of two circles being connected (and an important
sight
> of bicycle wheels) will recur a number of times further into the text in
> significant ways). Of course this is the infinity symbol. It is also
closely
> related to the two-winged creature "infinite past, infinite future" just a
few
> lines down, where the individual occupies the intersction of the tewo
realms.
> I vaguely remember reading something about N's concept of time being like
> this...
>
> David Morris
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
> http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 11:17:43 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Michael Joseph <mjoseph@rci.rutgers.edu>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> Good! But see also Nab's NYT essay
>
> http://www2.eunet.lv/library/koi/NABOKOW/Inter16.txt
>
> ><snip><
>
> You are, I am told, at work on a new novel. Do you have
> a working title? And could you give me a precis of what it is
> all about?
>
> The working title of the novel I am composing now is
> Transparent Things, but a precis would be an opaque
> shadow. The faade of our hotel in Montreux is being
> repainted, and I have reached the ultimate south of Portugal in
> an effort to find a quiet spot (pace the booming surf
> and rattling wind) where to write. This I do on scrambled index
> cards (my text existing already there in invisible lead) which
> I gradually fill in and sort out, using up in the process more
> pencil sharpeners than pencils; but I have spoken of this in
> several earlier questionnaires-- a word whose spelling I have
> to look up every time; my traveling companion, Webster's
> Collegiate Dictionary, 1970, defines, by the way, "Quassia" as
> derived from "Quassi," a Surinam Negro slave of the 18th centu!
> ry, who discovered a remedy for worms in white children. On the
> other hand, none of my own coinages or reapplications appears
> in this lexicon-- neither "iridule" (a mother-of-pearl cloudlet
> in Pale Fire), nor "racemosa" (a kind of bird cherry),
> nor several prosodie terms such as "scud" and "tilt" (see my
> Commentary to Eugene Onegin).
>
> ><snip><
>
> Michael
>
>
> On Tue, 22 Jul 2003, David Morris wrote:
>
> >
> > ---Charles:
> > >
> > > Iridule - curiously this word makes neither the OED, nor
Websters.........."
> > a rainbow reflected in a cloud from a thunderstorm in a distant valley "
> >
> > This definition is from the words in the poem? I guess it's a made-up
word
> > combining "irridescent" with the diminutive "ule." I think the poem
suggests
> > it is in a droplet of water.
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3433
> ********************************
>
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 8:18 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3433
>
> pynchon-l-digest Tuesday, July 22 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3433
>
>
>
> Re: VLVL2 (1) Missed Communications: Beginnings
> VLVL2 (1) Robberds essay
> NPPF: CANTO ONE (2) on behalf of Charles
> NPPF: CANTO ONE (1) on behalf of Charles
> Re: VLVL2 (1) Robberds essay
> NPPF - Canto One - Sherlock Holmes
> Re: VLVL2 (1) Ellison, "one, only one of each"
> Re: Work
> NPPF: CANTO ONE NOTES on behalf of Charles
> Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
> Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
,
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:13:00 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: CANTO ONE (2) on behalf of Charles
>
> Great Bear - Ursa major, also Big Dipper.....
>
> "The constellation Ursa Major contains the group of stars commonly called
> the Big Dipper. The handle of the Dipper is the Great Bear's tail and the
> Dipper's cup is the Bear's flank. The Big Dipper is not a constellation
> itself, but an asterism, which is a distinctive group of stars. Another
> famous asterism is the Little Dipper in the constellation Ursa Minor.
>
> If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you can use the Big Dipper to find
> all sorts of important stars:
>
> * If you draw an imaginary line from Merak through Dubhe out of the cup of
> the dipper (see the picture above) and continue five times as far as Dubhe
> is from Merak, you will arrive at Polaris, the North Star.
>
> * Now draw an imaginary line along the handle of the dipper and continue
the
> arc across the sky. Eventually this will lead you to the very bright star,
> Arcturus in the constellation BoЖtes. If you continue the arc further, you
> will reach Spica in Virgo. You can remember this by saying "Arc to
Arcturus
> and Speed to Spica."
>
> *If you follow the other two stars in the cup of the dipper (Megrez and
> Phecda) down below the cup, you will get to Regulus.html, the brightest
star
> in Leo.
>
> According to some Native American legends, the bowl of the Big Dipper is a
> giant bear and the stars of the handle are three warriors chasing it. The
> constellation is low in the sky in autumn evening sky, so it was said that
> the hunters had injured the bear and its blood caused the trees to change
> color to red.
>
> Although the whole of Ursa Major is difficult to see without very dark
> skies, the Big Dipper is one of the most recognizable patterns in the
> northern sky. In other cultures it was identified as a wagon or cart, a
> plow, a bull's thigh, and (to the Chinese) the government.
>
> The Big Dipper was also a very important part of the Underground Railroad
> which helped slaves escape from the South before the Civil War. There were
> songs spread among the slave population which included references to the
> "Drinking Gourd." The songs said to follow it to get to a better life.
This
> veiled message for the slaves to flee northward was passed along in the
form
> of songs since a large fraction of the slave population was illiterate. "
>
>
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/constellations/Ursa_Major.ht
> ml
>
>
>
> more:
>
> " The name "The Great Bear" seems to have been assigned to the
constellation
> in antiquity, due to its northern latitudes. Only a prodigious bear could
> live in such a northerly clime. Interestingly, a number of North American
> tribes (Algonquin, Iroquois, Illinois, and Narragansett, among possibly
> others) also associated the constellation with a gigantic bear.
>
> In Greek mythology Callisto, daughter of King Lycaon, was chosen as a
young
> child to be one of Artemis's companions. Now Artemis was Apollo's sister,
> patroness of childbirth and protector of babies and of suckling animals.
The
> one thing she prized above all was her chastity; she even asked Zeus for
> eternal virginity, which he granted.
>
> Artemis gathered about her a number of young nymphs. Reflecting her own
vows
> on chastity, she also required complete fidelity from these young women
> (girls actually, who would grow into womanhood). One of these was
Callisto.
> Zeus had the habit of seducing young maidens, and eventually he got around
> to Callisto. When Artemis discovered that Callisto was pregnant, she took
> her revenge. Artemis loved to hunt; she would take her revenge in the
chase.
> So she changed Callisto into a bear. (Remember that Artemis is the same
> goddess that caught Actaeon watching her bath. She turned him into a stag
> then set his own hounds on him. They ripped him to pieces.)
>
> So Artemis's plan was to have Callisto, as a bear, hunted down and killed.
> But Zeus took pity, and sent Callisto to the heavens, keeping the same
form
> of a bear. Her son Arcas would grow up to be the ancestral founder of the
> Arcadians, before he too joined his mother in the heavens as Ursa Minor. "
>
> http://www.dibonsmith.com/uma_con.htm
>
> but for those who can overlook poor editing, I like this version better...
>
> " Mythological Background:
>
> According to greek mythology one day the Godfather Zeus saw a beautiful
> girl, the nymph Kallisto, and fell in love with her. But Kallisto was one
of
> the virgin followers of the virgin goddess Diana, the huntress. So Zeus
took
> the form of Diana to approach Kallisto and managed it to make love to her.
> Once Diana saw what had happened (Kallisto was obviously pregnant, when
> Diana and all her nymphs take a bath), she send Kallisto away. Even worse,
> Hera, the wife of Zeus heard about Kallisto and her now born son Arkas and
> become terribly jealous. In her anger she turned her into a bear.
> Years later Kallisto, still a bear, met her son Arkas, but was of course
not
> recognized by him. In his fear Arkas tried to kill the bear, but Zeus
> himself took both of them an placed them between the stars and made them
two
> neighbouring constellations.
>
> When Hera saw Kallisto glittering with the stars she furiously went down
to
> the ocean to meet Thethys and Oceanos. She told them the story and ask a
> favour: that the bear never ever is able to reach the water. And indeed,
as
> said above, in the northern hemisphere, the constellation of the Great
Bear
> never touches the ocean. (This story can be found in "Metamorphoses, book
> II" by the roman poet Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 BC to 17 AC). Its's
an
> intersting that he speaks of the seven stars of the Bear. This implies
that
> in those times just the stars forming the asterism of the Big Dipper were
> meant to form the bear. Though these stars are even nowadays called the
> Great Bear, the constellation is a bit more extended.) "
>
> http://www.seds.org/Maps/Stars_en/Fig/ursamajor.html
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:12:54 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1) on behalf of Charles
>
> Waxwing - "Cedar Waxwings are sleek, elegant birds with long wings, rather
> short tails, and a crest. They have a short, broad bill and short legs.
Both
> sexes look alike. Adults are buffy brown on the head and back. The brown
> color shades to pale yellow on the belly and to gray brown on the back,
> fading further to slate gray on the rump and upper tail. The tail is
tipped
> with a yellow band. The undertail coverts are white. The legs and feet are
> black. Adults have a narrow, black mask outlined in white that extends
over
> the face to end behind each eye in a point. The chin is black. At the end
of
> each secondary feather, the shaft is extended as a small, red, wax-like
> appendage. The number of these waxy appendages increases with age, until
> adult plumage is attained."
>
> http://birds.cornell.edu/BOW/CEDWAX/
>
>
> Larches - (from the OED) "Well known coniferous tree native of the Alps,
> which is largely cultivated in this country (UK). It's timber is tough and
> durable. It yields Venetian Turpentine, bark is used in tanning."
>
> There are local american varieties.....
>
>
>
> Torquated - (OED)
>
> 1) Wearing a torque
>
> 2) Formed as or like a torque, twisted from a narrow strip or band
>
> Torque - A collar, necklace, bracelet or similar ornament consisting of a
> twisted narrow band or strip, usually of precious metal, worn especially
by
> the ancient Gauls and Britons
>
> Torque - Twisting or rotary force
>
> Pheasant - Medium sized game bird, native to China stocked pretty much all
> over the globe. The most common game variety is the Ring Necked, so called
> for its distinctive collar....Hunters will tell you that pheasants always
> run towards the sun......
>
> Grouse - Small game bird, native to N. America......Common variety is
> referred to as Ruffed. The ruff is a "collar" of feathers around the neck
> which the grouse can expand in order to intimidate either other male
> grouses, or really stupid predators. Unlike the pheasant, the grouse is
> fiercely territorial. Males are in the habit of standing on tree stumps
and
> "drumming", issuing a distinctive percussive sound by means unknown to
your
> correspondent.....
>
> more: http://www.ruffedgrousesociety.org/ruffed_facts.asp
>
> Sherlock Holmes - Duh.........From The Return of Sherlock Holmes - The
> Adventure of the Empty House....
>
> Holes is believed to have been killed by Morioraty at Reichenbach Fall.
But
> bowing to popular demand, Doyle brought Sherlock back from the
> dead......below is the passage where Watson first meets the phantom...
>
> " A tall, thin man with coloured glasses, whom I strongly suspected of
being
> a plain-clothes detective, was pointing out some theory of his own, while
> the others crowded round to listen to what he said. I got as near him as I
> could, but his observations seemed to me to be absurd, so I withdrew again
> in some disgust. As I did so I struck against an elderly deformed man, who
> had been behind me, and I knocked down several books which he was
carrying.
> I remember that as I picked them up I observed the title of one of them,
> "The Origin of Tree Worship," and it struck me that the fellow must be
some
> poor bibliophile who, either as a trade or as a hobby, was a collector of
> obscure volumes. "
>
> Later....
>
> "
>
> "I stood up and examined the rocky wall behind me. In your picturesque
> account of the matter, which I read with great interest some months later,
> you assert that the wall was sheer. This was not literally true. A few
small
> footholds presented themselves, and there was some indication of a ledge.
> The cliff is so high that to climb it all was an obvious impossibility,
and
> it was equally impossible to make my way along the wet path without
leaving
> some tracks. I might, it is true, have reversed my boots, as I have done
on
> similar occasions, but the sight of three sets of tracks in one direction
> would certainly have suggested a deception."
>
>
http://www.mastertexts.com/Doyle_Arthur_Conan/The_Return_of_Sherlock_Holmes/
> Chapter00001.htm
>
> Shagbark (Hickory) - N. American hardwood bearing
> "drupes"..........Shagbark, so named for its distinctively shaggy
> appearance, is the fuel of choice for southern barbeque fanatics......
>
> Stillicide - (OED) A falling of water in drops, a succession of drops.
> Dropping of water from the eaves of a house..
>
> Vermiculated - (from Webster's Unabridged) Wormlike in shape. Covered
with
> wormlike elevations:marked with irregular fine lines of color or with
> irregular wavy impressed lines like worm tracks....
>
> Theolatry - (OED) worship of deity or deities
>
> Iridule - curiously this word makes neither the OED, nor
Websters.........."
> a rainbow reflected in a cloud from a thunderstorm in a distant valley "
>
> Dr. Sutton's light - see Canto Four lines 985-6
>
> "but it's not bedtime yet. The sun attains
>
> Old Dr. Sutton's last two windowpanes.."
>
>
>
> Lemniscate - (OED) [lemniscotus - adorned with ribbons] The designation of
> certain closed curves having a general resemblance to the figure 8.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 14:26:03 +0100
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:27:12 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF - Canto One - Sherlock Holmes
>
> Some more on the Holmes reference to add to what Charles posted:
>
> ln 27-28: "Was he in _Sherlock Holmes_, the fellow whose / Tracks pointed
> back when he reversed his shoes?"
>
> A manifestation of an important theme in PF, the commingling of art and
> life, specifically the intrusion of one into the other. Here a character
> from literature leaves a trail across Shade's image; the footprints left
by
> a pheasant are elevated into art: "Torquated beauty, sublimated grouse"
(ln
> 25), and preserved in literature.
>
> There is no "Case of the Reversed Footprints" from Arthur Conan Doyle, but
> in "The Final Problem" (1893), intended to be the last Holmes story,
Watson
> discovers evidence at the top of Reichenbach Falls indicating that Holmes
> and Moriarty had struggled there and fallen over the edge together,
> presumably to die at the bottom. In describing the scene where the
struggle
> took place, Watson writes:
>
> "The blackish soil is kept forever soft by the incessant drift of spray,
and
> a bird would leave its tread upon it. Two lines of footmarks were clearly
> marked along the farther end of the path, both leading away from me. There
> were none returning." (Doyle, "The Final Problem")
>
> http://www.citsoft.com/holmes/memoirs/final.problem.txt
>
> Note the contrast between Shade's white snow and Doyle's blackish soil;
note
> also of course the bird's tread across it.
>
> In 1903 Doyle decided to resurrect Holmes for a new series of stories, the
> first of which appeared in Collier's as "The Adventure of the Empty
House".
> In order to explain his return, Sherlock says to Watson, "Well, then,
about
> that chasm. I had no serious difficulty in getting out of it, for the very
> simple reason that I never was in it." He goes on to explain:
>
> "I had little doubt that I had come to the end of my career when I
perceived
> the somewhat sinister figure of the late Professor Moriarty standing upon
> the narrow pathway which led to safety. I read an inexorable purpose in
his
> gray eyes. I exchanged some remarks with him, therefore, and obtained his
> courteous permission to write the short note which you afterwards
received.
> I left it with my cigarette-box and my stick, and I walked along the
> pathway, Moriarty still at my heels. When I reached the end I stood at
bay.
> He drew no weapon, but he rushed at me and threw his long arms around me.
He
> knew that his own game was up, and was only anxious to revenge himself
upon
> me. We tottered together upon the brink of the fall. I have some
knowledge,
> however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more
> than once been very useful to me. I slipped through his grip, and he with
a
> horrible scream kicked madly for a few seconds, and clawed the air with
both
> his hands. But for all his efforts he could not get his balance, and over
he
> went. With my face over the brink, I saw him fall for a long way. Then he
> struck a rock, bounded off, and splashed into the water."
>
> Watson is incredulous, and says, "But the tracks! [...] I saw, with my own
> eyes, that two went down the path and none returned." Holmes then
describes
> how it had occurred to him that it would be useful to fake his death and
> plot to destroy his enemies in secret. In order to leave the scene and
> create that illusion, he says:
>
> "The cliff is so high that to climb it all was an obvious impossibility,
and
> it was equally impossible to make my way along the wet path without
leaving
> some tracks. I might, it is true, have reversed my boots, as I have done
on
> similar occasions, but the sight of three sets of tracks in one direction
> would certainly have suggested a deception. On the whole, then, it was
best
> that I should risk the climb. It was not a pleasant business, Watson."
> (Doyle, "The Adventure of the Empty House")
>
> http://www.citsoft.com/holmes/return/empty.house.txt
>
> Obviously much of this serves the Shadean internal author theory.... Note
> also the "inexorable purpose in [Moriarty's] gray eyes." See line 29:
"All
> colors made me happy: even gray." Gray is the color associated with
Gradus.
>
> akaJasperFidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 10:45:22 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: CANTO ONE NOTES on behalf of Charles
>
> A literal synopsis
>
> Not required.........
>
> The poem opens with the waxwing hitting the windowpane (some suggest that
> the waxwing in question has been picked up by the boy Shade), and a brief
> digression about the curious effects of reflection and refraction which
> takes the reader from summer (the season when the waxwing gorges on
seasonal
> berries) to the first snowfall. (lines 1-12)
>
> The day of snowfall turns into night, and in the morning a set of tracks
are
> discovered. They lead "left to right",
> "a dot, and arrow pointing back, repeat:
> Dot, arrow pointing back....A pheasant's feet"
> This recalls a technique perhaps employed by someone "in Sherlock
> Holmes".....(lines 13-28)
>
> Shade describes himself as a child with a photographic memory, with a
> fascination for colors, "even gray"....(lines 29-40)
>
> He comments on his vision, previously so keen, beginning to fail him,
> "maybe some quirk in space
> has caused a fold or furrow......" (lines 41-48)
>
> Shade describes his fondness for a highly articulated hickory. The season
> has shifted to spring, Hazel's death is obliquely hinted at - and here
come
> the butterflies....(lines 49-57)
>
> There begins to arise a suggestion that Shade is engaged in a "dialogue"
> with Hazel's ghost
> "the house itself is much the same", as he describes changes made to it
over
> the years. The stiff vane "so often visited by the naive" has been
replaced
> by "TV's huge paperclip" - where the mockingbird now loiters.....(lines
> 58-70)
>
> Shade recounts how he, himself, was an infant when his parents, "both
> ornithologists" died. His memory of them is distorted by his inability to
> see nothing of them but their "virtues".........[note - the closing
couplet
> scans - I would say "effectively", but for what appears to be the first
time
> - - it "reads" awkwardly - this is of no particular importance, only a
> curious lapse..cfa] (lines 71-88)
>
> The tour, now of the childhood home, continues - we are told of a maid and
a
> reasonably large immediate family - there is a hint of "papism" in the
> blood....(lines 79-85)
>
> The 'spinster' aunt , Maud, a poet, artist, and Red Sox fan, is
introduced.
> Her metier appears to be combining the common with the 'grotesque'. Her
room
> has been left "intact".....(lines 86 - 98)
>
> Shade is a precocious atheist, with, paradoxically, no faith in "free
will"
> - - a determinist, maybe a fatalist. His love of nature is put in terms
> gustatory....(lines 99- 104)
>
> He discusses his "sensitivity" to natures abundant colors, its wonders -
> while hinting at an outside agency using such to divert "us" from our
> confinement. The season has shifted to summer....(lines 105 - 114)
>
> Moving on to fall, the young Shade ponders the "relativity" of time, and
> the similarity of its "shape" to the closing wings of a butterfly - its
> fatal consequences.....(lines 115-124)
>
> Shade contrasts himself with the "vulgarian" who only sees the stars when
> micturating. As a boy, Shade, it seems, only looked up, unable to avoid
any
> obstacles in his path. He was "asthmatic, lame and fat" - predictably
> unathletic...(lines 125-130)
>
> The waxwing episode is recalled, but this time, it is not "false azure",
but
> "feigned remoteness". He refers to a unique sense (given that he
stipulates
> to the same five as everyone else enjoys - we must assume that the unique
> refers to his "vision"). He dreams " I played with other chaps", but
insists
> that he never "envied" other boys, except for "the miracle of a lemniscate
> left.....by nonchalantly deft bicycle tires...." [line 139 is broken by
> what I would call a caesura (Elaine - HELP!), the first such in the
> poem](lines 131-139)
>
> Shade describes a day when he was 11. While playing inside with a
> "clockwork toy - a tin wheelbarrow pushed by a tin boy" he suffers some
> form of seizure, defined by a "sudden sunburst" in his head........(lines
> 139 - 146)
>
> The seizure is described. "Time and place have become confused"......your
> correspondent assumes any and all similarities to an LSD, or Psillosybin,
> experience are entirely coincidental......(lines 147-156)
>
> These "seizures" occurr every day for the course of one winter, and then
> disappear. Shade grows healthier and learns how to swim. However, "the
> wonder (of these epsiodes) lingers and the shame remains.....(lines
> 167-176)
>
>
> love,
> cfa
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 08:01:42 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> - ---Charles:
> >
> > Iridule - curiously this word makes neither the OED, nor
Websters.........."
> a rainbow reflected in a cloud from a thunderstorm in a distant valley "
>
> This definition is from the words in the poem? I guess it's a made-up
word
> combining "irridescent" with the diminutive "ule." I think the poem
suggests
> it is in a droplet of water.
>
> > Lemniscate - (OED) [lemniscotus - adorned with ribbons] The designation
of
> certain closed curves having a general resemblance to the figure 8.
>
> As Kinbote comments, it's hard to figure out what this figure has to do
with a
> bicycle (but the image of two circles being connected (and an important
sight
> of bicycle wheels) will recur a number of times further into the text in
> significant ways). Of course this is the infinity symbol. It is also
closely
> related to the two-winged creature "infinite past, infinite future" just a
few
> lines down, where the individual occupies the intersction of the tewo
realms.
> I vaguely remember reading something about N's concept of time being like
> this...
>
> David Morris
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
> http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 11:17:43 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Michael Joseph <mjoseph@rci.rutgers.edu>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> Good! But see also Nab's NYT essay
>
> http://www2.eunet.lv/library/koi/NABOKOW/Inter16.txt
>
> ><snip><
>
> You are, I am told, at work on a new novel. Do you have
> a working title? And could you give me a precis of what it is
> all about?
>
> The working title of the novel I am composing now is
> Transparent Things, but a precis would be an opaque
> shadow. The faade of our hotel in Montreux is being
> repainted, and I have reached the ultimate south of Portugal in
> an effort to find a quiet spot (pace the booming surf
> and rattling wind) where to write. This I do on scrambled index
> cards (my text existing already there in invisible lead) which
> I gradually fill in and sort out, using up in the process more
> pencil sharpeners than pencils; but I have spoken of this in
> several earlier questionnaires-- a word whose spelling I have
> to look up every time; my traveling companion, Webster's
> Collegiate Dictionary, 1970, defines, by the way, "Quassia" as
> derived from "Quassi," a Surinam Negro slave of the 18th centu!
> ry, who discovered a remedy for worms in white children. On the
> other hand, none of my own coinages or reapplications appears
> in this lexicon-- neither "iridule" (a mother-of-pearl cloudlet
> in Pale Fire), nor "racemosa" (a kind of bird cherry),
> nor several prosodie terms such as "scud" and "tilt" (see my
> Commentary to Eugene Onegin).
>
> ><snip><
>
> Michael
>
>
> On Tue, 22 Jul 2003, David Morris wrote:
>
> >
> > ---Charles:
> > >
> > > Iridule - curiously this word makes neither the OED, nor
Websters.........."
> > a rainbow reflected in a cloud from a thunderstorm in a distant valley "
> >
> > This definition is from the words in the poem? I guess it's a made-up
word
> > combining "irridescent" with the diminutive "ule." I think the poem
suggests
> > it is in a droplet of water.
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3433
> ********************************
>