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From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
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Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 10:44 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3539
>
> pynchon-l-digest Monday, September 8 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3539
>
>
>
> NPPF: Commentary to lines 47-48
> NPPF: Commentary to lines 47-48
> VLVL(5) Summary
> Re: VLVL2(4)(ll) summer CAMP
> book review: _The Story of V: Opening Pandora's Box_
> NPPF Comm3: Alder
> NPPF Comm3: Beech
> NPPF Comm3: C130 Summary
> NPPF Comm3: Of Basques and Carlists
> The Low-Frequency Listener: Soundless Music, Weird Sensations
> Re: [NPPF] Childhood Epilepsy
> NPPF: Childhood epilepsy (part 1)
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 00:53:54 -0700
> From: "Glenn Scheper" <glenn_scheper@earthlink.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Commentary to lines 47-48
>
> Part 2 of ?
>
> You guys are making me work! I hadn't thought about
> 2 Corinthians 12:2 in ages, not since I realized FF
> is an important religious topic. Let me revise my
> interpretation on this point:
>
> 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in
> the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot
> tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
>
> 12:3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the
> body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
>
> 12:4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable
> words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
>
> 12:5 Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory,
> but in mine infirmities.
>
> If Paul was talking about AF, he would not be wondering whether
> in or out of the body. So let's try the fit of Filial Fe11atio.
> I hesitate to ask an un-PC question whether adult fe11atio fits.
> So, above 14 clearly includes infancy, and Paul might have been
> able to logically deduce whether or not FF was inflicted on him.
>
> For example, Jesus could deduce his father was good, not as the
> Balaam-Satan-father of Antipas in the third category, Pergamos:
> For Jesus to totalize all eight personal conditions, he must be
> able to dwell in the three binaries: (gender, good/bad father,
> good/bad mother). While Jesus as father-of-self does AF, he can
> only ever stand for the FF father, the bad father. So his good
> father must have been the biological father, who J did not FF.
>
> To recap my POV, the eight angels adressees are four male AF
> (cherubim / swords) and three female AC (six-labia seraphim).
> "He who speaks" in the seven letters is each self by AF or AC.
> Jesus' ambivalance comes from an originary wet dream in navel.
> Otherwise, parents lock each child in one of seven categories.
> The mouth is polymorphous, but imprinted by whatso came in it.
>
> Ephesus: Male imprinted by MC (phallic mouth), whereupon AF
> confers gender-confusion on pen is, yielding the 4+3 stars.
>
> Smyrna: No abuse. Poverty as a lack of contents, AF reverses.
>
> (Paul:)
> Pergamos: Male imprinted by FF (yonic mouth), AF yields the
> "sharp sword with two edges," nominal idiom for short dagger
> but I suggest, ingesting two penii. If his father were an AF,
> then FF turned dad Balaam-ish; if not, merely a Nicolaitain.
> In AF Pergamos in his own mouth is in father-Satan's throne.
> Antipas would be one historical instance of a child Pergamos.
> If Antipas inflicts FF, he becomes Balaam, whose son fights
> against them (now including him) with the sword of his mouth.
> That failure would complete the doubling, making his penile
> numeric quality like two breasts, making a stone into bread;
> Whereas the overcomer picks AF, spurns FF, and gains a white
> phallus marked with secret name (lowercase Greek alpha mark).
>
> Thyatira: Male imprinted by FF and MC, whereupon AF makes a
> son of God, because all God-as-necessary-being (progenitors)
> are all called and present on the on the same throne. Surely
> a dangerous combination, probably the aetiology of an Hitler.
>
> (Dividing this evening's work in half for better posting...)
>
> Yours truly,
> Glenn Scheper
> http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/
> glenn_scheper + at + earthlink.net
>
> Copyleft(!) Forward freely.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 00:57:10 -0700
> From: "Glenn Scheper" <glenn_scheper@earthlink.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Commentary to lines 47-48
>
> Part 3 of ?
>
> I've solved the three(four) female angels less than the males:
>
> Sardis: Female with seven spirits = FF and AC. (cf. Ephesus).
> Probably Emily Dickinson's category. (Dressed in white, and
> who clearly deduced FF, having written: "Crowned - Crowing
> - - on my Father's breast -/ A half-unconscious Queen -"
>
> Philadelphia: Female; No abuse; AC.
>
> Laodicea: Female; MC, AC.
>
> Excluded 8th category: Female, suffered FF and MC; Possibly
> addressed in the "but unto you" of Thyatira's double letter.
> (There are two morning stars: Mars and Venus--the bright &).
> Excluded from seven Jesus spans by reversal of logic above.
> Possibly appears at "another angel having a golden censor."
> Her AC makes Babylon, but inflicting FF and/or MC, Jezebel.
>
> No doubt a majority of people fall in the pre-Smyrna (male)
> and pre-Philadelphia categories of no parental sexual abuse.
> They have a possibility of becoming Smyrna or Philadelphia.
>
> What got me on this spiel? I picked up Eliot's WasteLand to
> see what next easy part I could redact, and there's Smyrna!
> (I did 77-99=AC in "Re: NPPF: pie ala Maud, Keat's version")
>
> 209 Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant
> 210 Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants
>
> Unabused with AF is certainly eu-genides. Unshaven because
> his pen is is not a sword, as a Pergamos. (PF--take note!)
> Pocket as purse is mouth, full of currants, grapes, pen is.
>
> 243 (And I Tiresias have foresuffered all
> 244 Enacted on this same divan or bed;
>
> Tiresias is some variant of Jesus, whose O.W.D.I.N. (above)
> granted him parental duplicity, but has a different FF / MC
> or FF2 combination, perhaps like Paul, perhaps another way.
> Some of these variants cause divine 4+3 combinatrics to shift
> to 5+2, yielding the realm of 7/10 creatures instead of 7/12.
>
> This is what caught my attention, spurred me to write today:
> 270 Red sails
> 271 Wide
> 272 To leeward, swing on the heavy spar.
> Big Aha! This is coitus: Sails = female; Spar = male.
>
> 294 Undid me. By Richmond I raised my knees
> 295 Supine on the floor of a narrow canoe.'
>
> "Raised the knees" creates an ellipsis suggesting to me AF.
> If these are real cities in England, they should map well
> on a man in yogic plough position, allowing for both uses
> of feet, once as feet, and once as genitals. Even so, the
> canoe may stand for the man, not a literal event outdoors.
>
> 303 The broken fingernails of dirty hands.
>
> Contrast PF: Synthesis of sun and stars puts Shade in some
> respect into a Thyatira category, for Revelation's fourth
> vial is poured out upon the Sun, and Thyatira says "I will
> kill her children with death" - which did happen to Hazel.
>
> Yours truly,
> Glenn Scheper
> http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/
> glenn_scheper + at + earthlink.net
>
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:25:34 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm3: Alder
>
> p. 116
> "also called alder"
>
> The alder is part of the reference set for GЖethe's "Der ErlkЖnig."
> Commonly thought a mistranslation* from Johann Gottfried von Herder's
> version of the Danish "ErlkЖnigs Tochter" ("ellerkonge", "elverkonge"
"king
> of the elves"), the ErlkЖnig may refer to an Elf King, or (as it does
> literally) to the Alder King (German "Erle" "alder" and "KЖnig" "king").
In
> Germanic folklore the ErlkЖnig is an evil spirit malicious especially
toward
> children.
>
> "Den ErlenkЖnig mit Kron und Schweif?"
> See also Kron glacier (99), Mt. Kron (132), Kronberg (143)
> See also elfinwood (142), alfear (143)
>
> http://www.fln.vcu.edu/goethe/erl_dict.html
> http://germanenglishwords.com/rlge.htm
>
> The Alder
> Betulaceae (Birch family)
>
> Alnus spp. (A. Glutinosa - "European or Black Alder", A. Maritima -
"Seaside
> Alder", A. Rugosa - "Tag Alder", A serrulata - "Common or Hazel Alder")
>
> A member of the sacred tree club in Pale Fire (along with Cedar, Hazel,
Yew,
> Ash, Beech, Birch) (and remember the first rule of tree club!), the alder
is
> the Celtic Tree of Life (when cut it seems to bleed red), associated with
> resurrection, the emergence of the solar year, and protection against
water
> (it's leaves resist rain better than other deciduous trees, and it's
timber
> resists decay when used for conduits, bridges, or boats).
>
> Graves says, "But principally the alder is the tree of fire, the power of
> fire to free the earth from water; and the alder-branch by which Bran was
> recognised at the /CБd Goddeu/ is a token of resurrection -- its buds are
> set in a spiral. This spiral symbol is ante-diluvian: the earliest
Sumerian
> shrines are 'ghost-houses', like those used in Uganda, and are flanked by
> spiral posts." (Robert Graves, _The White Goddess_, p. 172)
>
> And of course the spiral is an important construct for VN.
>
> Also known as the faerie's tree, it is the tree of witches, who can use
its
> wood to fashion whistles to summon and control the four winds. It's wood
is
> used for the construction of pipes, flutes, staves, and (historically)
> shields that were believed to inherit the protection of the tree's spirit.
> Also used to produce charcoal. Sometimes called Gummy or Gluey in
European
> folklore.
>
> Three dyes derive from the alder: red from its bark, green from its
flowers,
> and brown from its twigs, so it contains the elements of fire, water, and
> earth, and is also associated with the colors crimson, green-brown, and
> royal purple.
>
> In Celtic myth Bran the Blessed is a giant who bridges the charmed river
> Linon using alder wood, fights the Ash King on behalf of the Alder King,
and
> his sister Branwen's son is burned in an alder bonfire. Bran is the god
of
> regeneration, whose name means "raven." Later legend has it that after
> receiving a mortal wound in the foot with a poisoned spear, Bran's head
was
> brought to the White Mound, where the Tower of London now stands, in order
> to face any enemy invasion (thus the legend that if the ravens leave the
> Tower of London, Britain will be invaded). King Arthur later dug it up in
> order to become Britain's sole protector.
>
> http://www.cyberphile.co.uk/~taff/taffnet/mabinogion/bran2.html
>
> In the Irish Ossianic "Song of the Forest Trees" it is the "the very
> battle-witch of all woods, tree that is hottest in the fight," and in
Irish
> legend the first human male was created from the alder. In the legends of
> the Rollright stones in Oxfordshire, the King Stone, which stands alone,
was
> reputedly once associated with a grove of alder trees. In ancient Greek
> mythology, the god Cronos was represented by an alder tree. In Norse
legend
> March was known a the "lengthening month of the waking alder" (JM
Paterson,
> _A Tree in Your Pocket_).
>
> http://www.treelore.com/trees/alder.html
> http://grandpasgeneral.com/boswood.html
> http://treetotem.com/tealder.htm
> http://www.thornr.demon.co.uk/bran/alderims.html
>
>
> * A recent essay by Burkhard SchrЖder disputes GЖethe's supposed
> mistranslation, and shows ErlkЖnig to connect to the color white and some
of
> the associations that surround it (he includes the Greek goddess Alphito,
> the Jewish Lilith, the German Alberich (the Erlking is sometimes thought
to
> be the King of the dwarves; also the alder grows near water and is said to
> be under the protection of water fairies (Rhinemaidens for the
Wagnerphiles
> out there)), to the Celtic Bran the Blessed, and even forward to Moby
Dick).
>
> http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/12692/1.html (in German)
> http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth09.htm
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:32:12 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm3: Beech
>
> p. 118
> "'Tell me more,' [Shade] would say as he knocked his pipe empty against a
> beech trunk."
>
> From Dryden's translation of Virgil's first Eclogue:
>
> "Beneath the shade which beechen boughs diffuse
> You, Tityrus, entertain your silvan muse.
> Round the wide world in banishment we roam,
> Forced from our pleasing fields and native home;
> While, stretched at ease, you sing your happy loves,
> And Amaryllis fills the shady groves."
>
> The symbol for the written word in the Celtic ogham alphabet, the beech
> (Phagos to the Celts) is the tree from which the pages of the first books
in
> Europe were made ("beech" in English from "boc" "book," in German "Buche"
> "Buch") and associated with various gods of wisdom and learning, as well
as
> Odin/Wotan, who was given the gift of runes. Frazer describes it as the
> embodiment of Diana for the Romans. St. Leanard was said to have prayed
> away serpents and birds from the beech (as his hut was surrounded by
> beeches). The tree of ancient learning, it is also associated with
Cronos,
> Greek god of time. It is also the national emblem of Denmark.
>
> The beech commonly provides covering for witch hazel (common to the
> Appalachian Mountains).
>
> The phrase "knock on wood" (an Americanization from the English "touch
> wood") purportedly derives from a Celtic superstition that knocking on a
> tree would invoke the spirit held within. In this case, to knock on a
beech
> tree is to invoke a spirit of new experiences and new information ("The
> Battle of the Trees" begins with the beech) -- thus a fitting tree for the
> beginning of Kinbote's story. Another version of the superstition has it
> that knocking on a tree would make enough noise to prevent the spirit
within
> from hearing what you were saying, in which case the opposite intent would
> be implied for Shade.
>
> http://www.the-tree.org.uk/BritishTrees/beech.htm
> http://www.cygnus-books.co.uk/features/spirit_of_the_beech_tree.htm
>
> In any case, one gets the sense that either Shade is not really listening
or
> Kinbote is just hearing what he wants to hear.
>
> Reminiscent of the "drunk with a walrus mustache [who] kept staggering
> around and patting the trunks of the lindens" (p. 106).
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:32:46 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm3: C130 Summary
>
> "Line 130: I never bounced a ball or swung a bat" (pp 117-135)
> Summary
>
> The setting is the Royal Palace in Onhava where King Charles is kept
> confined by insurgent forces. It is a time of transition (another border
> zone), the early months of the rebellion, and the Royalists and Modems
> (Moderate Democrats) are losing control of the country thanks to "the
> tainted gold and robot troops that a powerful police state from its
vantage
> ground a few sea miles away was pouring into the Zemblan Revolution" (p
> 119). Soon Zembla will become "a commonplace modern tyranny" (p 119).
>
> After being accused of sending signals from his high tower with a hand
> mirror, Charles is moved to "a dismal lumber room" that contains a closet
> which connects to a secret passage, although Charles does not immediately
> remember it (it's been three decades since he discovered it). This had
been
> the dressing room of his grandfather "Thurgus the Third" who had been
> carrying on an affair with an actress named Iris Acht, whose sun-faded
> portrait still hung on one wall "above a whitewashed closet door"; it is
"a
> large photograph in a frame of black velvet" (121). Iris, who died in 188
8
> (the number of yards between Thurgus' closet and her dressing room it
turns
> out -- see 127), is shown revealing her bare shoulders.
>
> On p. 123 Kinbote's pacing accelerates as he warms up, at one moment
> yawning, then losing sight of the card players due to his "prism of
tears",
> then casting a "bored glance". "A cricket cricked" (123). Then he sees
the
> "gilt key in the lock of the closet door" (123) which causes a "spark of
> conflagration to spread in the prisoner's mind." It's the key to the
secret
> passage he and Oleg discovered thirty years ago.
>
> That was in May of 1928 when Charles was thirteen and had Oleg, Duke of
> Rahl, for a playmate ("sleeveless jerseys, white anklesocks with black
> buckle shoes, and very tight, very short shorts" (123) should convey the
> idea), "a regular faunlet" (123) with whom Charles had shared a bed for
the
> first time a fortnight ago. Young Charles rummages through the lumber
room
> closet in search of "an elaborate toy circus" (which will be the palace
> itself in the future -- see p. 208) and stumbles upon the secret passage.
> Charles gets flashlights and a pedometer as Oleg arrives. Oleg carries a
> tulip. Hahahahhahahahah. Ahem. Together they follow the secret passage
as
> it winds about the palace grounds, "[adapting] itself to the various
> structures which it followed" (126) until the pedometer tocks off 1,888
> yards at a green door which the closet key also fits. The boys are scared
> by the "two terrible voices" (127) of a man a woman [rehearsing for a
play],
> and run back in panic to "lock themselves up" for "another sort of
> excitement" (127).
>
> Charles, returning from his recollection, realizes he can use the secret
> passage to escape the castle. He judges he'll need ninety seconds to
"enter
> the closet, lock it from the inside, remove the shelves, open the secret
> door, replace the shelves, slip into the yawning darkness, close the
secret
> door and lock it" (128).
>
> After convincing his guard (Hal) to let him play the piano in the music
> room, Charles is able to tell Odon (who keeps a "vigil over the shrouded
> harp") of the secret tunnel and his new plan. We learn of the ongoing
quest
> by the "new administration" to locate the "crown jewels" (see Index) by
> hiring "a couple of foreign experts [...] to locate them" (129), two
> Russians (Andronnikov and Niagarin) who have been methodically dismantling
> the palace.
>
> Odon goes off to act in /The Merman/ at the Royal Theater, "already
> bemisted, already receding into the remoteness of his Thespian world" (p.
> 131), after warning Charles to wait before using the tunnel. Charles is
> escorted back to his chamber by a "fat guard" and turned over to "handsome
> Hal", who informs his charge that he'll be locking the lumber-room door in
> order to "join his companions in the adjacent court" (132).
>
> Charles, realizing his opportunity, changes into the clothes he finds in
the
> closet ("skiing trousers and something that felt like an old sweater"
(132)
> which turn out to be bright red), "[negotiates] the eighteen invisible
> steps" through the closet and into the secret passage. He lights up his
> "torch" and thinks of "Oleg's ghost, the phantom of freedom" (132) (Oleg
has
> since died in a toboggan accident at the age of fifteen), recalling the
> image of "the luminous disk probing an endless tunnel" (128). He follows
> the secret passage (now grown more squalid) to the third door, and enters
> Iris Acht's dressing room in the Royal Theater. He meets Odon there.
> Together they don "cloaks from a heap of fantastic raiments" (134), pass
> through a group of people smoking on the landing (a reflection of present
> day New York no doubt), and are recognized by the Scenic Director, but
> before he can stammer out the king's identity, they make it to Odon's
> "racing car" for their getaway.
>
> That's the surface of the note. Next I'll start digging.
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:50:55 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm3: Of Basques and Carlists
>
> p. 119
> "the English ambassador [...] playing tennis with the Basque coach"
>
> Of Basques
>
> The Romans met the Basques somewhere between 218 and 75 BCE around the
> region of Pamplona. After the Western Empire dissipated around 830 CE,
the
> Navarre Kingdom come about, which covered all of modern Navarre, the three
> Vascongadas (Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, Araba), parts of modern France, and parts
of
> modern Spain, populated largely by the Basques. This territory gradually
> receded, and by 1515 Navarre was absorbed by Spain and France into roughly
> the current borders. The Spanish Basques retained privileges of
> self-governance called "feuros," and were only subject to the crown as a
> group, rather than individually, while they lived in the Vascongadas. It
> was these feuros that compelled the Basques to support Don Carlos in his
bid
> for the Spanish crown during the Carlist Wars.
>
> Of Carlists
>
> The Basques were allied with the Carlists during Spain's civil wars ("The
> Carlist Wars"), the first of which (1834 - 1839) was spawned in part by
the
> shockwave of the French Revolution and a dispute regarding the succession
of
> King Ferdinand VII. The pretender to the Spanish throne, Charles V
(byname
> Don Carlos), was the brother of Ferdinand. The king had left his throne
to
> his daughter Isabelle, and Charles maintained that under Salic law female
> succession was forbidden. Promising regional autonomy under his rule in
> opposition to the liberal centralism of the new government, Charles
garnered
> the support of the Basques, who hoped to retain their feuros -- their
rights
> to self-governance -- and headed the revolt from the Basque provinces.
Both
> Britain and France supported Isabelle, however, and facing superior
numbers
> and support, the first Carlist rebellion was brought to an end by 1840,
> scattering many of the Basques as a consequence. Don Carlos retreated to
> exile and abdicated his pretensions in 1845, taking the title Count de
> Molina.
>
> Perhaps of some interest for PF readers, the Basque national anthem,
> "Gernikako Arbola" by Jose Mari Iparraguirre, centers on a "sacred tree"
in
> Gernika, the historic gathering site of the Basque self-governing
councils.
> The first verse translated:
>
> The tree of Gernika
> is a blessed symbol
> loved by all the Basque people
> with deep love.
> Give to all the world
> your fruit;
> we adore you
> sacred tree.
>
> http://www.1st-4-spanish-property.com/history/carlist_wars.html
> http://www.andramaridantzataldea.com/begira_ing.htm
> http://www.buber.net/Basque/History/history.html
>
> Note also that Henry IV married Joan of Navarre in 1403.
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 08:18:51 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: The Low-Frequency Listener: Soundless Music, Weird Sensations
>
> Soundless Music Shown to Produce Weird Sensations
> Sun September 07, 2003 07:09 PM ET
> By Patricia Reaney
>
> MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Mysteriously snuffed
> out candles, weird sensations and shivers down the
> spine may not be due to the presence of ghosts in
> haunted houses but to very low frequency sound that is
> inaudible to humans.
>
> British scientists have shown in a controlled
> experiment that the extreme bass sound known as
> infrasound produces a range of bizarre effects in
> people including anxiety, extreme sorrow and chills --
> supporting popular suggestions of a link between
> infrasound and strange sensations.
>
> "Normally you can't hear it," Dr Richard Lord, an
> acoustic scientist at the National Physical Laboratory
> in England who worked on the project, said Monday.
>
> Lord and his colleagues, who produced infrasound with
> a seven meter (yard) pipe and tested its impact on 750
> people at a concert, said infrasound is also generated
> by natural phenomena.
>
> "Some scientists have suggested that this level of
> sound may be present at some allegedly haunted sites
> and so cause people to have odd sensations that they
> attribute to a ghost -- our findings support these
> ideas," said Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist
> at the University of Hertfordshire in southern
> England.
>
> In the first controlled experiment of infrasound, Lord
> and Wiseman played four contemporary pieces of live
> music, including some laced with infrasound, at a
> London concert hall and asked the audience to describe
> their reactions to the music.
>
> The audience did not know which pieces included
> infrasound but 22 percent reported more unusual
> experiences when it was present in the music.
>
> Their unusual experiences included feeling uneasy or
> sorrowful, getting chills down the spine or nervous
> feelings of revulsion or fear.
>
> "These results suggest that low frequency sound can
> cause people to have unusual experiences even though
> they cannot consciously detect infrasound," said
> Wiseman, who presented his findings to the British
> Association science conference.
>
> Infrasound is also produced by storms, seasonal winds
> and weather patterns and some types of earthquakes.
> Animals such as elephants also use infrasound to
> communicate over long distances or as weapons to repel
> foes.
>
> "So much has been said about infrasound -- it's been
> associated with just about everything from beam
> weapons to bad driving. It's wonderful to be able to
> examine the evidence," said Sarah Angliss, a composer
> and engineer who worked on the project.
>
>
>
<http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=3401200>
>
> [...] So the closest thing in the Zone to an early
> Christian is put on to listen for news of unauthorized
> crucifixions. "Someone the other night was dying,"
> Rohr tells him. "I don't know if he was inside the
> Zone or out at sea. He wanted a priest. Should I have
> got on an told him about priests? Would he've found
> any comfort in that? It's so painful sometimes. We're
> really trying to be Christians. . . ." (GR 681-682)
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
> http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 12:37:52 -0400
> From: "charles albert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: Re: [NPPF] Childhood Epilepsy
>
> ....and here I was growing increasingly confident that this issue would be
> relegated to a matter of PF trivia, as it appears to have been by most
> commentators.....
>
> Thanks, Appleshiner.........now I've got some serious typing to do......
>
> With the proto-Klytemnestra safely ensconsed at the Chapel Penal Facility
> for the day, I am now free to get back to the office, and do just that....
>
> Be back in about an hour, with the lowdown.......
>
>
> love,
> cfa
>
>
>
>
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "sZ" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> To: "The Neo-Nabokov List" <pynchon-l@waste.org>
> Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2003 5:58 PM
> Subject: [NPPF] Childhood Epilepsy
>
>
> > Vladimir Nabokov. Inspiration:
> > (written on November 20, 1972, for Saturday Review)
> >
> > A special study, which I do not plan to conduct, would reveal, probably,
> > that inspiration is seldom dwelt upon nowadays even by the worst
reviewers
> > of our best prose. I say "our" and I say "prose" because I am thinking
of
> > American works of fiction, including my own stuff. It would seem that
this
> > reticence is somehow linked up with a sense of decorum. Conformists
> suspect
> > that to speak of "inspiration" is as tasteless and old-fashioned as to
> stand
> > up for the Ivory Tower. Yet inspiration exists as do towers and tusks.
> > One can distinguish several types of inspiration, which intergrade, as
all
> > things do in this fluid and interesting world of ours, while yielding
> > gracefully to a semblance of classification. A prefatory glow, not
unlike
> > some benign variety of the aura before an epileptic attack, is something
> the
> > artist learns to perceive very early in life. This feeling of tickly
> > well-being branches through him like the red and the blue in the picture
> of
> > a skinned man under Circulation. As it spreads, it banishes all
awareness
> of
> > physical discomfort- youth's toothache as well as the neuralgia of old
> age.
> > The beauty of it is that, while completely intelligible (as if it were
> > connected with a known gland or led to an expected climax), it has
neither
> > source nor object. It expands, glows, and subsides without revealing its
> > secret. In the meantime, however, a window has opened, an auroral wind
has
> > blown, every exposed nerve has tingled. Presently all dissolves: the
> > familiar worries are back and the eyebrow redescribes its arc of pain;
but
> > the artist knows he is ready.
> > http://mochola.narod.ru/nablib.htm
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 13:43:26 -0400
> From: "cfalbert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: NPPF: Childhood epilepsy (part 1)
>
> This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
>
> - ------=_NextPart_000_008E_01C3760F.2DF4A2A0
> Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
>
> IF Nab was thusly afflicted, it has not been made apparent in the course =
> of my admittedly cursory studies. Therefore, we are left to ask whence =
> the inspiration (before we ask the even more obvious - how does it =
> function in the novel, an issue I will try to take on later). The whence =
> appears somewhat obvious to anyone who made it past the first couple of =
> hundred pages of Dostoevsky's The Idiot.
>
> PALE FIRE:
> "A thread of subtle pain,
> Tugged at by playful death, released again,
> But always present, ran through me. One day,
> When I'd just turned eleven, as I lay
> Prone on the floor and watched a clockwork toy -=20
> A tin wheelbarrow pushed by a tin boy -=20
> Bypass chair legs and stray beneath the bed,
> There was a sudden sunburst in my head."
>
> It was the sunburst, describing an event occurring INSIDE the house, =
> which triggered the connection.
>
> If I still retain my copy of The Idiot, I cannot locate it, so I must =
> rely on a proxy, specifically Elizabeth Dalton's The Epileptic Mode of =
> Being, reproduced in Bloom's anthology on Dostoevsky. She excerpts:
>
> "Not far off there was a church, and the gilt roof was glistening in the =
> bright sunshine. He remembers that he stared very persistently at that =
> roof and at the rays of light flashing from it; he could not tear =
> himself away from the light. It seemed to him that htose rays were his =
> new nature and that in three minutes he would somehow melt into =
> them....."
>
> The context is Prince Myshkin's telling of the story of a friend, =
> standing before a firing squad. For the benefit of those not familiar =
> with Dosotevsky's bio, the incident is taken from his own life. Accused =
> as an accomplice of a group suspected of subversion, he was sentenced to =
> death by firing squad. At the last minute, Tsar Nicholas I delivered a =
> reprieve. The trauma of the event led several members of the group to =
> suffer mental breakdowns, though Dostoevsky himself apparently weathered =
> it.
>
> More detail here:
>
> http://www.abcgallery.com/list/2001august01.html
>
> and this one from my former prof at the Middlebury Language program....
>
> http://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/courses/previous/ru351/bio.shtml
>
> love,
>
> cfa
> - ------=_NextPart_000_008E_01C3760F.2DF4A2A0
> Content-Type: text/html;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
>
> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
> <HTML><HEAD>
> <META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; =
> charset=3Diso-8859-1">
> <META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.2800.1170" name=3DGENERATOR>
> <STYLE></STYLE>
> </HEAD>
> <BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>IF Nab was thusly afflicted, it has not =
> been made=20
> apparent in the course of my admittedly cursory studies. Therefore, we =
> are left=20
> to ask whence the inspiration (before we ask the even more obvious - how =
> does it=20
> function in the novel, an issue I will try to take on later). The whence =
> appears=20
> somewhat obvious to anyone who made it past the first couple of hundred =
> pages of=20
> Dostoevsky's The Idiot.</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>PALE FIRE:</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>"A thread of subtle pain,</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Tugged at by playful death, released=20
> again,</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>But always present, ran through me. One =
>
> day,</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>When I'd just turned eleven, as I =
> lay</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Prone on the floor and watched a =
> clockwork toy -=20
> </FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>A tin wheelbarrow pushed by a tin boy - =
>
> </FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Bypass chair legs and stray beneath the =
>
> bed,</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>There was a sudden sunburst in my=20
> head."</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>It was the sunburst, describing an =
> event occurring=20
> INSIDE the house, which triggered the connection.</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>If I still retain my copy of The Idiot, =
> I cannot=20
> locate it, so I must rely on a proxy, specifically Elizabeth Dalton's =
> The=20
> Epileptic Mode of Being, reproduced in Bloom's anthology on Dostoevsky. =
> She=20
> excerpts:</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>"Not far off there was a church, and =
> the gilt roof=20
> was glistening in the bright sunshine. He remembers that he stared =
> very=20
> persistently at that roof and at the rays of light flashing from it; he =
> could=20
> not tear himself away from the light. It seemed to him that htose =
> rays=20
> were his new nature and that in three minutes he would somehow =
> melt into=20
> them....."</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>The context is Prince Myshkin's telling =
> of the=20
> story of a friend, standing before a firing squad. For the benefit of =
> those not=20
> familiar with Dosotevsky's bio, the incident is taken from his own life. =
> Accused=20
> as an accomplice of a group suspected of subversion, he was sentenced to =
> death=20
> by firing squad. At the last minute, Tsar Nicholas I delivered a =
> reprieve.=20
> The trauma of the event led several members of the group to suffer =
> mental=20
> breakdowns, though Dostoevsky himself apparently weathered =
> it.</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>More detail here:</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2><A=20
> href=3D"http://www.abcgallery.com/list/2001august01.html">http://www.abcg=
> allery.com/list/2001august01.html</A></FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>and this one from my former prof at the =
> Middlebury=20
> Language program....</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2><A=20
> href=3D"http://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/courses/previous/ru351/bio=
>
..shtml">http://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/courses/previous/ru351/bio=
> ..shtml</A></FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>love,</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>cfa</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
>
> - ------=_NextPart_000_008E_01C3760F.2DF4A2A0--
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3539
> ********************************
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message to waste@waste.org
> with "unsubscribe pynchon-l-digest" in the message body.
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2003 10:44 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3539
>
> pynchon-l-digest Monday, September 8 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3539
>
>
>
> NPPF: Commentary to lines 47-48
> NPPF: Commentary to lines 47-48
> VLVL(5) Summary
> Re: VLVL2(4)(ll) summer CAMP
> book review: _The Story of V: Opening Pandora's Box_
> NPPF Comm3: Alder
> NPPF Comm3: Beech
> NPPF Comm3: C130 Summary
> NPPF Comm3: Of Basques and Carlists
> The Low-Frequency Listener: Soundless Music, Weird Sensations
> Re: [NPPF] Childhood Epilepsy
> NPPF: Childhood epilepsy (part 1)
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 00:53:54 -0700
> From: "Glenn Scheper" <glenn_scheper@earthlink.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Commentary to lines 47-48
>
> Part 2 of ?
>
> You guys are making me work! I hadn't thought about
> 2 Corinthians 12:2 in ages, not since I realized FF
> is an important religious topic. Let me revise my
> interpretation on this point:
>
> 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in
> the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot
> tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
>
> 12:3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the
> body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
>
> 12:4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable
> words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
>
> 12:5 Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory,
> but in mine infirmities.
>
> If Paul was talking about AF, he would not be wondering whether
> in or out of the body. So let's try the fit of Filial Fe11atio.
> I hesitate to ask an un-PC question whether adult fe11atio fits.
> So, above 14 clearly includes infancy, and Paul might have been
> able to logically deduce whether or not FF was inflicted on him.
>
> For example, Jesus could deduce his father was good, not as the
> Balaam-Satan-father of Antipas in the third category, Pergamos:
> For Jesus to totalize all eight personal conditions, he must be
> able to dwell in the three binaries: (gender, good/bad father,
> good/bad mother). While Jesus as father-of-self does AF, he can
> only ever stand for the FF father, the bad father. So his good
> father must have been the biological father, who J did not FF.
>
> To recap my POV, the eight angels adressees are four male AF
> (cherubim / swords) and three female AC (six-labia seraphim).
> "He who speaks" in the seven letters is each self by AF or AC.
> Jesus' ambivalance comes from an originary wet dream in navel.
> Otherwise, parents lock each child in one of seven categories.
> The mouth is polymorphous, but imprinted by whatso came in it.
>
> Ephesus: Male imprinted by MC (phallic mouth), whereupon AF
> confers gender-confusion on pen is, yielding the 4+3 stars.
>
> Smyrna: No abuse. Poverty as a lack of contents, AF reverses.
>
> (Paul:)
> Pergamos: Male imprinted by FF (yonic mouth), AF yields the
> "sharp sword with two edges," nominal idiom for short dagger
> but I suggest, ingesting two penii. If his father were an AF,
> then FF turned dad Balaam-ish; if not, merely a Nicolaitain.
> In AF Pergamos in his own mouth is in father-Satan's throne.
> Antipas would be one historical instance of a child Pergamos.
> If Antipas inflicts FF, he becomes Balaam, whose son fights
> against them (now including him) with the sword of his mouth.
> That failure would complete the doubling, making his penile
> numeric quality like two breasts, making a stone into bread;
> Whereas the overcomer picks AF, spurns FF, and gains a white
> phallus marked with secret name (lowercase Greek alpha mark).
>
> Thyatira: Male imprinted by FF and MC, whereupon AF makes a
> son of God, because all God-as-necessary-being (progenitors)
> are all called and present on the on the same throne. Surely
> a dangerous combination, probably the aetiology of an Hitler.
>
> (Dividing this evening's work in half for better posting...)
>
> Yours truly,
> Glenn Scheper
> http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/
> glenn_scheper + at + earthlink.net
>
> Copyleft(!) Forward freely.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 00:57:10 -0700
> From: "Glenn Scheper" <glenn_scheper@earthlink.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Commentary to lines 47-48
>
> Part 3 of ?
>
> I've solved the three(four) female angels less than the males:
>
> Sardis: Female with seven spirits = FF and AC. (cf. Ephesus).
> Probably Emily Dickinson's category. (Dressed in white, and
> who clearly deduced FF, having written: "Crowned - Crowing
> - - on my Father's breast -/ A half-unconscious Queen -"
>
> Philadelphia: Female; No abuse; AC.
>
> Laodicea: Female; MC, AC.
>
> Excluded 8th category: Female, suffered FF and MC; Possibly
> addressed in the "but unto you" of Thyatira's double letter.
> (There are two morning stars: Mars and Venus--the bright &).
> Excluded from seven Jesus spans by reversal of logic above.
> Possibly appears at "another angel having a golden censor."
> Her AC makes Babylon, but inflicting FF and/or MC, Jezebel.
>
> No doubt a majority of people fall in the pre-Smyrna (male)
> and pre-Philadelphia categories of no parental sexual abuse.
> They have a possibility of becoming Smyrna or Philadelphia.
>
> What got me on this spiel? I picked up Eliot's WasteLand to
> see what next easy part I could redact, and there's Smyrna!
> (I did 77-99=AC in "Re: NPPF: pie ala Maud, Keat's version")
>
> 209 Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna merchant
> 210 Unshaven, with a pocket full of currants
>
> Unabused with AF is certainly eu-genides. Unshaven because
> his pen is is not a sword, as a Pergamos. (PF--take note!)
> Pocket as purse is mouth, full of currants, grapes, pen is.
>
> 243 (And I Tiresias have foresuffered all
> 244 Enacted on this same divan or bed;
>
> Tiresias is some variant of Jesus, whose O.W.D.I.N. (above)
> granted him parental duplicity, but has a different FF / MC
> or FF2 combination, perhaps like Paul, perhaps another way.
> Some of these variants cause divine 4+3 combinatrics to shift
> to 5+2, yielding the realm of 7/10 creatures instead of 7/12.
>
> This is what caught my attention, spurred me to write today:
> 270 Red sails
> 271 Wide
> 272 To leeward, swing on the heavy spar.
> Big Aha! This is coitus: Sails = female; Spar = male.
>
> 294 Undid me. By Richmond I raised my knees
> 295 Supine on the floor of a narrow canoe.'
>
> "Raised the knees" creates an ellipsis suggesting to me AF.
> If these are real cities in England, they should map well
> on a man in yogic plough position, allowing for both uses
> of feet, once as feet, and once as genitals. Even so, the
> canoe may stand for the man, not a literal event outdoors.
>
> 303 The broken fingernails of dirty hands.
>
> Contrast PF: Synthesis of sun and stars puts Shade in some
> respect into a Thyatira category, for Revelation's fourth
> vial is poured out upon the Sun, and Thyatira says "I will
> kill her children with death" - which did happen to Hazel.
>
> Yours truly,
> Glenn Scheper
> http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/
> glenn_scheper + at + earthlink.net
>
> ------------------------------
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:25:34 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm3: Alder
>
> p. 116
> "also called alder"
>
> The alder is part of the reference set for GЖethe's "Der ErlkЖnig."
> Commonly thought a mistranslation* from Johann Gottfried von Herder's
> version of the Danish "ErlkЖnigs Tochter" ("ellerkonge", "elverkonge"
"king
> of the elves"), the ErlkЖnig may refer to an Elf King, or (as it does
> literally) to the Alder King (German "Erle" "alder" and "KЖnig" "king").
In
> Germanic folklore the ErlkЖnig is an evil spirit malicious especially
toward
> children.
>
> "Den ErlenkЖnig mit Kron und Schweif?"
> See also Kron glacier (99), Mt. Kron (132), Kronberg (143)
> See also elfinwood (142), alfear (143)
>
> http://www.fln.vcu.edu/goethe/erl_dict.html
> http://germanenglishwords.com/rlge.htm
>
> The Alder
> Betulaceae (Birch family)
>
> Alnus spp. (A. Glutinosa - "European or Black Alder", A. Maritima -
"Seaside
> Alder", A. Rugosa - "Tag Alder", A serrulata - "Common or Hazel Alder")
>
> A member of the sacred tree club in Pale Fire (along with Cedar, Hazel,
Yew,
> Ash, Beech, Birch) (and remember the first rule of tree club!), the alder
is
> the Celtic Tree of Life (when cut it seems to bleed red), associated with
> resurrection, the emergence of the solar year, and protection against
water
> (it's leaves resist rain better than other deciduous trees, and it's
timber
> resists decay when used for conduits, bridges, or boats).
>
> Graves says, "But principally the alder is the tree of fire, the power of
> fire to free the earth from water; and the alder-branch by which Bran was
> recognised at the /CБd Goddeu/ is a token of resurrection -- its buds are
> set in a spiral. This spiral symbol is ante-diluvian: the earliest
Sumerian
> shrines are 'ghost-houses', like those used in Uganda, and are flanked by
> spiral posts." (Robert Graves, _The White Goddess_, p. 172)
>
> And of course the spiral is an important construct for VN.
>
> Also known as the faerie's tree, it is the tree of witches, who can use
its
> wood to fashion whistles to summon and control the four winds. It's wood
is
> used for the construction of pipes, flutes, staves, and (historically)
> shields that were believed to inherit the protection of the tree's spirit.
> Also used to produce charcoal. Sometimes called Gummy or Gluey in
European
> folklore.
>
> Three dyes derive from the alder: red from its bark, green from its
flowers,
> and brown from its twigs, so it contains the elements of fire, water, and
> earth, and is also associated with the colors crimson, green-brown, and
> royal purple.
>
> In Celtic myth Bran the Blessed is a giant who bridges the charmed river
> Linon using alder wood, fights the Ash King on behalf of the Alder King,
and
> his sister Branwen's son is burned in an alder bonfire. Bran is the god
of
> regeneration, whose name means "raven." Later legend has it that after
> receiving a mortal wound in the foot with a poisoned spear, Bran's head
was
> brought to the White Mound, where the Tower of London now stands, in order
> to face any enemy invasion (thus the legend that if the ravens leave the
> Tower of London, Britain will be invaded). King Arthur later dug it up in
> order to become Britain's sole protector.
>
> http://www.cyberphile.co.uk/~taff/taffnet/mabinogion/bran2.html
>
> In the Irish Ossianic "Song of the Forest Trees" it is the "the very
> battle-witch of all woods, tree that is hottest in the fight," and in
Irish
> legend the first human male was created from the alder. In the legends of
> the Rollright stones in Oxfordshire, the King Stone, which stands alone,
was
> reputedly once associated with a grove of alder trees. In ancient Greek
> mythology, the god Cronos was represented by an alder tree. In Norse
legend
> March was known a the "lengthening month of the waking alder" (JM
Paterson,
> _A Tree in Your Pocket_).
>
> http://www.treelore.com/trees/alder.html
> http://grandpasgeneral.com/boswood.html
> http://treetotem.com/tealder.htm
> http://www.thornr.demon.co.uk/bran/alderims.html
>
>
> * A recent essay by Burkhard SchrЖder disputes GЖethe's supposed
> mistranslation, and shows ErlkЖnig to connect to the color white and some
of
> the associations that surround it (he includes the Greek goddess Alphito,
> the Jewish Lilith, the German Alberich (the Erlking is sometimes thought
to
> be the King of the dwarves; also the alder grows near water and is said to
> be under the protection of water fairies (Rhinemaidens for the
Wagnerphiles
> out there)), to the Celtic Bran the Blessed, and even forward to Moby
Dick).
>
> http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/12692/1.html (in German)
> http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth09.htm
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:32:12 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm3: Beech
>
> p. 118
> "'Tell me more,' [Shade] would say as he knocked his pipe empty against a
> beech trunk."
>
> From Dryden's translation of Virgil's first Eclogue:
>
> "Beneath the shade which beechen boughs diffuse
> You, Tityrus, entertain your silvan muse.
> Round the wide world in banishment we roam,
> Forced from our pleasing fields and native home;
> While, stretched at ease, you sing your happy loves,
> And Amaryllis fills the shady groves."
>
> The symbol for the written word in the Celtic ogham alphabet, the beech
> (Phagos to the Celts) is the tree from which the pages of the first books
in
> Europe were made ("beech" in English from "boc" "book," in German "Buche"
> "Buch") and associated with various gods of wisdom and learning, as well
as
> Odin/Wotan, who was given the gift of runes. Frazer describes it as the
> embodiment of Diana for the Romans. St. Leanard was said to have prayed
> away serpents and birds from the beech (as his hut was surrounded by
> beeches). The tree of ancient learning, it is also associated with
Cronos,
> Greek god of time. It is also the national emblem of Denmark.
>
> The beech commonly provides covering for witch hazel (common to the
> Appalachian Mountains).
>
> The phrase "knock on wood" (an Americanization from the English "touch
> wood") purportedly derives from a Celtic superstition that knocking on a
> tree would invoke the spirit held within. In this case, to knock on a
beech
> tree is to invoke a spirit of new experiences and new information ("The
> Battle of the Trees" begins with the beech) -- thus a fitting tree for the
> beginning of Kinbote's story. Another version of the superstition has it
> that knocking on a tree would make enough noise to prevent the spirit
within
> from hearing what you were saying, in which case the opposite intent would
> be implied for Shade.
>
> http://www.the-tree.org.uk/BritishTrees/beech.htm
> http://www.cygnus-books.co.uk/features/spirit_of_the_beech_tree.htm
>
> In any case, one gets the sense that either Shade is not really listening
or
> Kinbote is just hearing what he wants to hear.
>
> Reminiscent of the "drunk with a walrus mustache [who] kept staggering
> around and patting the trunks of the lindens" (p. 106).
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:32:46 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm3: C130 Summary
>
> "Line 130: I never bounced a ball or swung a bat" (pp 117-135)
> Summary
>
> The setting is the Royal Palace in Onhava where King Charles is kept
> confined by insurgent forces. It is a time of transition (another border
> zone), the early months of the rebellion, and the Royalists and Modems
> (Moderate Democrats) are losing control of the country thanks to "the
> tainted gold and robot troops that a powerful police state from its
vantage
> ground a few sea miles away was pouring into the Zemblan Revolution" (p
> 119). Soon Zembla will become "a commonplace modern tyranny" (p 119).
>
> After being accused of sending signals from his high tower with a hand
> mirror, Charles is moved to "a dismal lumber room" that contains a closet
> which connects to a secret passage, although Charles does not immediately
> remember it (it's been three decades since he discovered it). This had
been
> the dressing room of his grandfather "Thurgus the Third" who had been
> carrying on an affair with an actress named Iris Acht, whose sun-faded
> portrait still hung on one wall "above a whitewashed closet door"; it is
"a
> large photograph in a frame of black velvet" (121). Iris, who died in 188
8
> (the number of yards between Thurgus' closet and her dressing room it
turns
> out -- see 127), is shown revealing her bare shoulders.
>
> On p. 123 Kinbote's pacing accelerates as he warms up, at one moment
> yawning, then losing sight of the card players due to his "prism of
tears",
> then casting a "bored glance". "A cricket cricked" (123). Then he sees
the
> "gilt key in the lock of the closet door" (123) which causes a "spark of
> conflagration to spread in the prisoner's mind." It's the key to the
secret
> passage he and Oleg discovered thirty years ago.
>
> That was in May of 1928 when Charles was thirteen and had Oleg, Duke of
> Rahl, for a playmate ("sleeveless jerseys, white anklesocks with black
> buckle shoes, and very tight, very short shorts" (123) should convey the
> idea), "a regular faunlet" (123) with whom Charles had shared a bed for
the
> first time a fortnight ago. Young Charles rummages through the lumber
room
> closet in search of "an elaborate toy circus" (which will be the palace
> itself in the future -- see p. 208) and stumbles upon the secret passage.
> Charles gets flashlights and a pedometer as Oleg arrives. Oleg carries a
> tulip. Hahahahhahahahah. Ahem. Together they follow the secret passage
as
> it winds about the palace grounds, "[adapting] itself to the various
> structures which it followed" (126) until the pedometer tocks off 1,888
> yards at a green door which the closet key also fits. The boys are scared
> by the "two terrible voices" (127) of a man a woman [rehearsing for a
play],
> and run back in panic to "lock themselves up" for "another sort of
> excitement" (127).
>
> Charles, returning from his recollection, realizes he can use the secret
> passage to escape the castle. He judges he'll need ninety seconds to
"enter
> the closet, lock it from the inside, remove the shelves, open the secret
> door, replace the shelves, slip into the yawning darkness, close the
secret
> door and lock it" (128).
>
> After convincing his guard (Hal) to let him play the piano in the music
> room, Charles is able to tell Odon (who keeps a "vigil over the shrouded
> harp") of the secret tunnel and his new plan. We learn of the ongoing
quest
> by the "new administration" to locate the "crown jewels" (see Index) by
> hiring "a couple of foreign experts [...] to locate them" (129), two
> Russians (Andronnikov and Niagarin) who have been methodically dismantling
> the palace.
>
> Odon goes off to act in /The Merman/ at the Royal Theater, "already
> bemisted, already receding into the remoteness of his Thespian world" (p.
> 131), after warning Charles to wait before using the tunnel. Charles is
> escorted back to his chamber by a "fat guard" and turned over to "handsome
> Hal", who informs his charge that he'll be locking the lumber-room door in
> order to "join his companions in the adjacent court" (132).
>
> Charles, realizing his opportunity, changes into the clothes he finds in
the
> closet ("skiing trousers and something that felt like an old sweater"
(132)
> which turn out to be bright red), "[negotiates] the eighteen invisible
> steps" through the closet and into the secret passage. He lights up his
> "torch" and thinks of "Oleg's ghost, the phantom of freedom" (132) (Oleg
has
> since died in a toboggan accident at the age of fifteen), recalling the
> image of "the luminous disk probing an endless tunnel" (128). He follows
> the secret passage (now grown more squalid) to the third door, and enters
> Iris Acht's dressing room in the Royal Theater. He meets Odon there.
> Together they don "cloaks from a heap of fantastic raiments" (134), pass
> through a group of people smoking on the landing (a reflection of present
> day New York no doubt), and are recognized by the Scenic Director, but
> before he can stammer out the king's identity, they make it to Odon's
> "racing car" for their getaway.
>
> That's the surface of the note. Next I'll start digging.
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 10:50:55 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: NPPF Comm3: Of Basques and Carlists
>
> p. 119
> "the English ambassador [...] playing tennis with the Basque coach"
>
> Of Basques
>
> The Romans met the Basques somewhere between 218 and 75 BCE around the
> region of Pamplona. After the Western Empire dissipated around 830 CE,
the
> Navarre Kingdom come about, which covered all of modern Navarre, the three
> Vascongadas (Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, Araba), parts of modern France, and parts
of
> modern Spain, populated largely by the Basques. This territory gradually
> receded, and by 1515 Navarre was absorbed by Spain and France into roughly
> the current borders. The Spanish Basques retained privileges of
> self-governance called "feuros," and were only subject to the crown as a
> group, rather than individually, while they lived in the Vascongadas. It
> was these feuros that compelled the Basques to support Don Carlos in his
bid
> for the Spanish crown during the Carlist Wars.
>
> Of Carlists
>
> The Basques were allied with the Carlists during Spain's civil wars ("The
> Carlist Wars"), the first of which (1834 - 1839) was spawned in part by
the
> shockwave of the French Revolution and a dispute regarding the succession
of
> King Ferdinand VII. The pretender to the Spanish throne, Charles V
(byname
> Don Carlos), was the brother of Ferdinand. The king had left his throne
to
> his daughter Isabelle, and Charles maintained that under Salic law female
> succession was forbidden. Promising regional autonomy under his rule in
> opposition to the liberal centralism of the new government, Charles
garnered
> the support of the Basques, who hoped to retain their feuros -- their
rights
> to self-governance -- and headed the revolt from the Basque provinces.
Both
> Britain and France supported Isabelle, however, and facing superior
numbers
> and support, the first Carlist rebellion was brought to an end by 1840,
> scattering many of the Basques as a consequence. Don Carlos retreated to
> exile and abdicated his pretensions in 1845, taking the title Count de
> Molina.
>
> Perhaps of some interest for PF readers, the Basque national anthem,
> "Gernikako Arbola" by Jose Mari Iparraguirre, centers on a "sacred tree"
in
> Gernika, the historic gathering site of the Basque self-governing
councils.
> The first verse translated:
>
> The tree of Gernika
> is a blessed symbol
> loved by all the Basque people
> with deep love.
> Give to all the world
> your fruit;
> we adore you
> sacred tree.
>
> http://www.1st-4-spanish-property.com/history/carlist_wars.html
> http://www.andramaridantzataldea.com/begira_ing.htm
> http://www.buber.net/Basque/History/history.html
>
> Note also that Henry IV married Joan of Navarre in 1403.
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 08:18:51 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: The Low-Frequency Listener: Soundless Music, Weird Sensations
>
> Soundless Music Shown to Produce Weird Sensations
> Sun September 07, 2003 07:09 PM ET
> By Patricia Reaney
>
> MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Mysteriously snuffed
> out candles, weird sensations and shivers down the
> spine may not be due to the presence of ghosts in
> haunted houses but to very low frequency sound that is
> inaudible to humans.
>
> British scientists have shown in a controlled
> experiment that the extreme bass sound known as
> infrasound produces a range of bizarre effects in
> people including anxiety, extreme sorrow and chills --
> supporting popular suggestions of a link between
> infrasound and strange sensations.
>
> "Normally you can't hear it," Dr Richard Lord, an
> acoustic scientist at the National Physical Laboratory
> in England who worked on the project, said Monday.
>
> Lord and his colleagues, who produced infrasound with
> a seven meter (yard) pipe and tested its impact on 750
> people at a concert, said infrasound is also generated
> by natural phenomena.
>
> "Some scientists have suggested that this level of
> sound may be present at some allegedly haunted sites
> and so cause people to have odd sensations that they
> attribute to a ghost -- our findings support these
> ideas," said Professor Richard Wiseman, a psychologist
> at the University of Hertfordshire in southern
> England.
>
> In the first controlled experiment of infrasound, Lord
> and Wiseman played four contemporary pieces of live
> music, including some laced with infrasound, at a
> London concert hall and asked the audience to describe
> their reactions to the music.
>
> The audience did not know which pieces included
> infrasound but 22 percent reported more unusual
> experiences when it was present in the music.
>
> Their unusual experiences included feeling uneasy or
> sorrowful, getting chills down the spine or nervous
> feelings of revulsion or fear.
>
> "These results suggest that low frequency sound can
> cause people to have unusual experiences even though
> they cannot consciously detect infrasound," said
> Wiseman, who presented his findings to the British
> Association science conference.
>
> Infrasound is also produced by storms, seasonal winds
> and weather patterns and some types of earthquakes.
> Animals such as elephants also use infrasound to
> communicate over long distances or as weapons to repel
> foes.
>
> "So much has been said about infrasound -- it's been
> associated with just about everything from beam
> weapons to bad driving. It's wonderful to be able to
> examine the evidence," said Sarah Angliss, a composer
> and engineer who worked on the project.
>
>
>
<http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=3401200>
>
> [...] So the closest thing in the Zone to an early
> Christian is put on to listen for news of unauthorized
> crucifixions. "Someone the other night was dying,"
> Rohr tells him. "I don't know if he was inside the
> Zone or out at sea. He wanted a priest. Should I have
> got on an told him about priests? Would he've found
> any comfort in that? It's so painful sometimes. We're
> really trying to be Christians. . . ." (GR 681-682)
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
> http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 12:37:52 -0400
> From: "charles albert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: Re: [NPPF] Childhood Epilepsy
>
> ....and here I was growing increasingly confident that this issue would be
> relegated to a matter of PF trivia, as it appears to have been by most
> commentators.....
>
> Thanks, Appleshiner.........now I've got some serious typing to do......
>
> With the proto-Klytemnestra safely ensconsed at the Chapel Penal Facility
> for the day, I am now free to get back to the office, and do just that....
>
> Be back in about an hour, with the lowdown.......
>
>
> love,
> cfa
>
>
>
>
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "sZ" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> To: "The Neo-Nabokov List" <pynchon-l@waste.org>
> Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2003 5:58 PM
> Subject: [NPPF] Childhood Epilepsy
>
>
> > Vladimir Nabokov. Inspiration:
> > (written on November 20, 1972, for Saturday Review)
> >
> > A special study, which I do not plan to conduct, would reveal, probably,
> > that inspiration is seldom dwelt upon nowadays even by the worst
reviewers
> > of our best prose. I say "our" and I say "prose" because I am thinking
of
> > American works of fiction, including my own stuff. It would seem that
this
> > reticence is somehow linked up with a sense of decorum. Conformists
> suspect
> > that to speak of "inspiration" is as tasteless and old-fashioned as to
> stand
> > up for the Ivory Tower. Yet inspiration exists as do towers and tusks.
> > One can distinguish several types of inspiration, which intergrade, as
all
> > things do in this fluid and interesting world of ours, while yielding
> > gracefully to a semblance of classification. A prefatory glow, not
unlike
> > some benign variety of the aura before an epileptic attack, is something
> the
> > artist learns to perceive very early in life. This feeling of tickly
> > well-being branches through him like the red and the blue in the picture
> of
> > a skinned man under Circulation. As it spreads, it banishes all
awareness
> of
> > physical discomfort- youth's toothache as well as the neuralgia of old
> age.
> > The beauty of it is that, while completely intelligible (as if it were
> > connected with a known gland or led to an expected climax), it has
neither
> > source nor object. It expands, glows, and subsides without revealing its
> > secret. In the meantime, however, a window has opened, an auroral wind
has
> > blown, every exposed nerve has tingled. Presently all dissolves: the
> > familiar worries are back and the eyebrow redescribes its arc of pain;
but
> > the artist knows he is ready.
> > http://mochola.narod.ru/nablib.htm
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 13:43:26 -0400
> From: "cfalbert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: NPPF: Childhood epilepsy (part 1)
>
> This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
>
> - ------=_NextPart_000_008E_01C3760F.2DF4A2A0
> Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
>
> IF Nab was thusly afflicted, it has not been made apparent in the course =
> of my admittedly cursory studies. Therefore, we are left to ask whence =
> the inspiration (before we ask the even more obvious - how does it =
> function in the novel, an issue I will try to take on later). The whence =
> appears somewhat obvious to anyone who made it past the first couple of =
> hundred pages of Dostoevsky's The Idiot.
>
> PALE FIRE:
> "A thread of subtle pain,
> Tugged at by playful death, released again,
> But always present, ran through me. One day,
> When I'd just turned eleven, as I lay
> Prone on the floor and watched a clockwork toy -=20
> A tin wheelbarrow pushed by a tin boy -=20
> Bypass chair legs and stray beneath the bed,
> There was a sudden sunburst in my head."
>
> It was the sunburst, describing an event occurring INSIDE the house, =
> which triggered the connection.
>
> If I still retain my copy of The Idiot, I cannot locate it, so I must =
> rely on a proxy, specifically Elizabeth Dalton's The Epileptic Mode of =
> Being, reproduced in Bloom's anthology on Dostoevsky. She excerpts:
>
> "Not far off there was a church, and the gilt roof was glistening in the =
> bright sunshine. He remembers that he stared very persistently at that =
> roof and at the rays of light flashing from it; he could not tear =
> himself away from the light. It seemed to him that htose rays were his =
> new nature and that in three minutes he would somehow melt into =
> them....."
>
> The context is Prince Myshkin's telling of the story of a friend, =
> standing before a firing squad. For the benefit of those not familiar =
> with Dosotevsky's bio, the incident is taken from his own life. Accused =
> as an accomplice of a group suspected of subversion, he was sentenced to =
> death by firing squad. At the last minute, Tsar Nicholas I delivered a =
> reprieve. The trauma of the event led several members of the group to =
> suffer mental breakdowns, though Dostoevsky himself apparently weathered =
> it.
>
> More detail here:
>
> http://www.abcgallery.com/list/2001august01.html
>
> and this one from my former prof at the Middlebury Language program....
>
> http://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/courses/previous/ru351/bio.shtml
>
> love,
>
> cfa
> - ------=_NextPart_000_008E_01C3760F.2DF4A2A0
> Content-Type: text/html;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
>
> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
> <HTML><HEAD>
> <META http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; =
> charset=3Diso-8859-1">
> <META content=3D"MSHTML 6.00.2800.1170" name=3DGENERATOR>
> <STYLE></STYLE>
> </HEAD>
> <BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>IF Nab was thusly afflicted, it has not =
> been made=20
> apparent in the course of my admittedly cursory studies. Therefore, we =
> are left=20
> to ask whence the inspiration (before we ask the even more obvious - how =
> does it=20
> function in the novel, an issue I will try to take on later). The whence =
> appears=20
> somewhat obvious to anyone who made it past the first couple of hundred =
> pages of=20
> Dostoevsky's The Idiot.</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>PALE FIRE:</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>"A thread of subtle pain,</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Tugged at by playful death, released=20
> again,</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>But always present, ran through me. One =
>
> day,</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>When I'd just turned eleven, as I =
> lay</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Prone on the floor and watched a =
> clockwork toy -=20
> </FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>A tin wheelbarrow pushed by a tin boy - =
>
> </FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>Bypass chair legs and stray beneath the =
>
> bed,</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>There was a sudden sunburst in my=20
> head."</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>It was the sunburst, describing an =
> event occurring=20
> INSIDE the house, which triggered the connection.</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>If I still retain my copy of The Idiot, =
> I cannot=20
> locate it, so I must rely on a proxy, specifically Elizabeth Dalton's =
> The=20
> Epileptic Mode of Being, reproduced in Bloom's anthology on Dostoevsky. =
> She=20
> excerpts:</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>"Not far off there was a church, and =
> the gilt roof=20
> was glistening in the bright sunshine. He remembers that he stared =
> very=20
> persistently at that roof and at the rays of light flashing from it; he =
> could=20
> not tear himself away from the light. It seemed to him that htose =
> rays=20
> were his new nature and that in three minutes he would somehow =
> melt into=20
> them....."</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>The context is Prince Myshkin's telling =
> of the=20
> story of a friend, standing before a firing squad. For the benefit of =
> those not=20
> familiar with Dosotevsky's bio, the incident is taken from his own life. =
> Accused=20
> as an accomplice of a group suspected of subversion, he was sentenced to =
> death=20
> by firing squad. At the last minute, Tsar Nicholas I delivered a =
> reprieve.=20
> The trauma of the event led several members of the group to suffer =
> mental=20
> breakdowns, though Dostoevsky himself apparently weathered =
> it.</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>More detail here:</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2><A=20
> href=3D"http://www.abcgallery.com/list/2001august01.html">http://www.abcg=
> allery.com/list/2001august01.html</A></FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>and this one from my former prof at the =
> Middlebury=20
> Language program....</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2><A=20
> href=3D"http://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/courses/previous/ru351/bio=
>
..shtml">http://community.middlebury.edu/~beyer/courses/previous/ru351/bio=
> ..shtml</A></FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>love,</FONT></DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2></FONT> </DIV>
> <DIV><FONT face=3DArial size=3D2>cfa</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>
>
> - ------=_NextPart_000_008E_01C3760F.2DF4A2A0--
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3539
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>
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