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Fw: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3554 pale fire
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----- Original Message -----
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 1:10 PM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3554
>
> pynchon-l-digest Thursday, September 18 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3554
>
>
>> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 10:17:35 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: NPPF Bear Range
>
> What's going onbearh the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
>
> p. 137
> "The Bera Range"
>
> Kinbote describes "a two-hundred-mile-long chain of rugged mountainBeara
> Zemblan mirror of the Appalachian Mountains.
>
> The word "bear" comes from the Old English "bera": "[Old English bera =
> Middle Dutch bere (Dutch beer), Old High German bero (German BДr), from
West
> Germanic: rel. to Old Norse bj?rn.]" (OED)
>
> Bera Mawr ("Big Bera", 2605 ft.) and Bera Bach ("Little Bera", 2648 ft.)
are
> two mountains in the Carneddau range of northern Wales, part of Snowdonia,
> and near Afon Goch river and Aber Falls (two names that resonate slightly
> elsewherBear PF). Big Bera happens to be shorter than Little Bera; they
> were probably named this way because Big Bera is more impressive to
looBear.
>
> http://www.crux.u-net.com/tables/Wales/Carneddau.html
> http://www.wherekillarney.com/bera.html
> http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/simon.edwardes/index.htm
> http://www.britainexpress.com/wales/tour/
>
> Try as I might I could not coax Charles II of England into crossing the
> Carneddau mountains; instead he stopped shBearof the Severn and returned
> east. Neither could I rearrange geography so that crossing them would
lead
> into the Wye Valley -- they are in the Northwest part of Wales, while the
> Wye is in the Southeast. (I wonder if VN encountered similar frustrations
> in researching his book?)
>
> So why the "Bera" mountains instead of, for example, the Black Mountains,
> which do border the Wye?
>
> There's a Bera (Beara) PeninsulBear Ireland, one of several peninsulas in
> the southwest that extend into the Atlantic like fingers pointing across
the
> ocean, and which is divided down the spine by the Caha Mountains and cut
off
> basally from the mainland by the Kenmare River. (And no, neither "Bera"
nor
> "Beara" turns up in Joyce as far as I can discover.)
>
> http://www.carn.com/Bearaindex.htm
>
> I thought maybe Bera was intended to suggest Lavrenti Beria (1899-1953),
> Stalin's boss of the Soviet NKVD (Peoples Commissariat for Internal
Affairs,
> a domestic secret police before the KGB), believed responsible for the
> deaths of millions of Russians in the purges, and later imprisoned and
> executed by Krushchev.
>
> http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSberia.htm
> http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/NKVD
> http://www.fas.org/irp/world/russia/kgb/index.html
>
> "Bera" is also a language used in the Congo.
>
> http://www.language-museum.com/b/bera.htm
>
> (This site is great by the way -- it provides examples from 2000 different
> languages.)
>
> Tasik Bera is the largest natural freshwater lake in Peninsula Malaysia.
>
>
http://www.marimari.com/content/malaysia/popular_places/lakes/bera/bera.html
>
> None of which is very compelling.
>
> The geographical features described in this passage do seem to allude to
the
> rreferringya Zemlya, with its chain of rugged mountains (an extension of
the
> Urals) and its impassable canal (the Matochkin Strait that divides the two
> islands). To the west is the Barents Sea, so another formulation of Bera
I
> suppose....
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 07:26:16 -0700
> From: "Glenn Scheper" <glenn_scheper@earthlink.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Commentary to lines 47-48
>
> Part 7 of ?
>
> "I stole through the shrubbery to the rear of their house.
> ....
> Sybil was alternately huddle-shaking and blowing her nose;
> John's face was all blotchy and wet.
> ....
> [Sybil] at once left her perch, closed the window
> ....
> [He] continues to clean the bowl of his pipe as fiercely
> as if it were my heart he was hollowing out.
> ....
> Dear Jesus, Do something."
>
>
> Not bad enough to impute knowledge of AF to VN, but now I
> want to suggest an anal interest, as in the GR 'Streets'
> sequence. (Three tries failed before. I'll repost today.)
> If the good shepherd coming in by the front door is AF,
> then sodomy might read as a thief coming in by a window.
>
> One of the last anecdotes of the reverend I fellowshipped
> with, was about a farmer, who prayed "out on the back 40."
> Now it was probably my loose associations that caused me
> to dwell on every word choice, mining alternate meanings,
> sub-story lines, conversations with angels from his words.
> But he also lauded turning from "Latin to Greek" readings,
> which word, Greek, of course is suggestive of anal-lingus.
>
> Like the long-nosed preacher earlier in this same section,
> this nose of Sybil seems to me to really be a penis, and
> this whole line describes AF, blow being a slang fellate.
>
> There's many poets naming females that seem to be refering
> in fact to their own phallus. Choice among them is Dante's
> phallus IS Beatrice as described in Vita Nuova, section 5:
>
> "It happened one day that this most gracious of ladies was
> sitting in a place where words about the Queen of Glory
> were being spoken, and I was where I could behold my bliss.
> Halfway between her and me, in a direct line of vision, sat
> a gentlewoman of a very pleasing appearance, who glanced at
> me frequently as if bewildered by my gaze, which seemed to be
> directed at her. And many began to notice her glances in my
> direction, and paid close attention to them and, as I left
> this place, I heard someone near me say: "See what a devastating
> effect that lady has had on that man." And, when her name was
> mentioned, I realized that the lady referred to was the one
> whose place had been half-way along the direct line which
> extended from the most gracious Beatrice, ending in my eyes.
> Then I was greatly relieved, feeling sure that my glances had
> not revealed my secret to others that day. At once I thought
> of making this lovely lady a screen to hide the truth, and so
> well did I play my part that in a short time the many people
> who talked about me were sure they knew my secret."
>
> Of course, all of Vita Nuova is an AF transformation treatise.
>
> A striking visual exposition is given by one illustration at:
> http://www.banger.com/banger/spare/focus/focint1.html
> > The Focus of Life By Austin Osman Spare
> > Preface - The Mutterings of Aaos
> wherein the reflexive word made flesh (here a disjoint trope
> of a codex replacing, emphasizing biblion is scroll is penis)
> is spoken/written/heard to vivify the memory of a prior gaze.
>
> Birds are one of the most frequent and stable metaphors of the
> act of autofellatio, both in scripture and among other authors.
> That is because, as Atlas shoulders the earth, his genitals are
> hanging overhead, in heaven, which is sky, like a bird flying.
> In synecdoche, taking part as whole, the AUTOFELLATOR IS BIRD.
> Note that the ancients' eagle or vulture names mean "gnasher".
>
> Like Poe's familiar Raven, Yeat's Falcon, and Wordsworth's
> Oh when I have hung
> Above the ravens nest,
> have hung alone ...
> With what strange utterance did the loud dry wind
> Blow through my ears,
>
> Shade's penis is Sybil, leaving her perch, which is his mouth.
> That Sybil closed the window, makes Shade an auto-sodomizer,
> which is also hollowing out the pipe bowl--pipe as AF trope.
>
> I can really relate to the "Dear Jesus, Do something," as many
> times I have hoped for a supernatural adjustment of ordinary
> suffering, a cataclysm that will repair essential abjection.
>
> In one of those moments, I conceived to curse rather than bless,
> by auto-sodomy, which initiated a complex sequence corresponding
> to Rev 14:14, and granted some broader horizon of interpretation.
>
> Rev 14:14: "And I looked, and behold a white cloud,
> and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man,
> having on his head a golden crown,
> and in his hand a sharp sickle."
>
> Yours truly,
> Glenn Scheper
> http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/
> glenn_scheper + at + earthlink.net
> Copyleft(!) Forward freely.
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2003 12:00:22 -0400
> From: Terrance <lycidas2@earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
>
> Jasper Fidget wrote:
> >
> > What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
>
> I can't keep up with it. Busy now. Schools open, the weather is very
> nice ... two weeks of excellent swells at the Ditch ... I'm
> thinking the Vineland should take a breather too. See you at The End.
>
>
>
> Gone surfing,
>
> Gasper Gidget
>
> ------------------------------
.edu>
> Subject: Re: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
>
> no, I'm in. But I've been tentative about posting my commentary on the
> commentary. Is your sense that you will have brought your performance to a
> conclusion by Monday?
>
> Michael
>
> >
> >
> > Jasper Fidget wrote:
> > >
> > > What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 09:40:10 -0700
> From: Mary Krimmel <mary@krimmel.net>
> Subject: NPPF Bear Range
>
> You're not the only one left.
>
> Thank you for all your enlightening information, such as this below about
> the Bera mountains in Wales, and the whole story of Charles II of England.
> You have added much to my enjoyment of PF.
>
> Let no one be misled by the "(Dutch beer)" in Jasper Fidget's note below.
> My copy of OED punctuates this a bit differently, "..., MDu. bere, Du.
> beer...", with "bere" and '"beer" both italicized, which shows more or
less
> clearly that they are the "same word". Both mean "bear", the animal, as do
> the other words in the OED etymology. The American Heritage dictionary
> gives the Indo-European root as "Bher-. Bright, brown."
>
> Though perhaps beer can be bright or even brown, the word "beer" comes
from
> an entirely different root.
>
> I wonder whether the Welsh mountains are bears as in Old Bearish or are
> bright brown. My dictionary gives no Welsh derivatives from "bher".
>
> Mary KrBearl
>
>
> At 10:17 AM 9/18/03 -0400, yoBearasper Fidget] wrote:
> >What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
> >
> >p. 137
> >"The Bera Range"
> >
> >Kinbote describes "a two-hundred-mile-long chain of rugged mountains," a
> >Zemblan mirror of the Appalachian Mountains.
> >
> >The word "bear" comes from the Old English "bera": "[Old English bera =
> >Middle Dutch bere (Dutch beer), Old High German bero (German BДr), from
West
> >Germanic: rel. to Old Norse bj?rn.]" (OED)
> >
> >Bera Bear ("Big Bera", 2605 ft.) and Bera Bach ("Little Bera", 2648 ft.)
are
> >two mountains in the Carneddau range of northern Wales, part of
SnowdoBear
> >and near Afon Goch river and Aber Falls (two names that resonate slightly
> >elsewhere in PF). Big Bera happens to be shorter than Little Bera; they
> >were probably named this way because Big Bera is more impressive to look
at.
> >
> >http://www.crux.u-net.com/tables/Wales/Carneddau.html
> >http://www.wherekillarney.com/bera.html
>Beartp://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/simon.edwardes/index.htm
> >http://www.britainexpress.com/wales/tour/
> >
> >Try as I might I could not coax Charles II of England into crossing the
> >Carneddau mountains; instead he stopped short of the Severn and returned
> >east. Neither could I rearrange geography so that crossing them would
lead
> >into the Wye Valley -- they are in the Northwest part of Wales, while the
> >Wye is in the Southeast. (I wonder if VBearcountered similar
frustrations
> >in researching his book?)
> >
> >So why the "Bera" mountains instead of, for example, the Black Mountains,
> >which do border the Wye?
> >
> >There's a Bera (Beara) Peninsula in Ireland, one of several peninsulas in
> >the southwest that extend into the Atlantic like fingers pointing across
the
> >ocean, and which is divided down the spine by the Caha Mountains and cut
off
> >basally from the mainland by the Kenmare River. (And no, neither "Bera"
nor
> >"Beara" turns up in Joyce as far as I can discover.)
> >
> >http://www.carn.com/Bearaindex.htm
> >
> >I thought maybe Bera was intended to suggest Lavrenti Beria (1899-1953),
> >Stalin's boss of the Soviet NKVD (Peoples Commissariat for Internal
Affairs,
> >a domestic secret police before the KGB), believed responsible for the
> >deaths of millions of Russians in the purges, and later imprisoned and
> >executed by Krushchev.
> >
> >http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSberia.htm
> >http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/NKVD
> >http://www.fas.org/irp/world/russia/kgb/index.html
> >
> >"Bera" is also a language used in the Congo.
> >
> >http://www.language-museum.com/b/bera.htm
> >
> >(This site is great by the way -- it provides examples from 2000
different
> >languages.)
> >
> >Tasik Bera is the largest natural freshwater lake in Peninsula Malaysia.
> >
>
>http://www.marimari.com/content/malaysia/popular_places/lakes/bera/bera.htm
l
> >
> >None of which is very compelling.
> >
> >The geographical features described in this passage do seem to allude to
the
> >real Novaya Zemlya, with its chain of rugged mountains (an extension of
the
> >Urals) aBearts impassable canal (the Matochkin Strait that divides the
two
> >islands). To the westBearthe Barents Sea, so another formulation of Bera
I
> >suppose....
> >
> >Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 10:22:53 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
>
> I'm in too, but not as actively as you've been. All of your research has
been
> nice, but I can't find anything which I find myself competent to comment o
n...
> What I'm really hoping for is some synthesis (from myself or others), but
I'm
> beginning to despair it's not gunna happen.
>
> DM
>
> > > Jasper Fidget wrote:
> > > > What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
> http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 13:29:44 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: RE: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> > Behalf Of Michael Joseph
> > Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 12:57 PM
> > To: Terrance
> > Cc: pynchon-l@waste.org
> > Subject: Re: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
> >
> > no, I'm in. But I've been tentative about posting my commentary on the
> > commentary. Is your sense that you will have brought your performance to
a
> > conclusion by Monday?
> >
> > Michael
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > Jasper Fidget wrote:
> > > >
> > > > What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
>
>
> Nope, it was my sense that my performance had concluded last Friday, in
> accordance with the revised schedule. I guess I should have made that
clear
> though. Is it time for another schedule adjustment?
>
> JF
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 13:35:51 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: RE: NPPF Bera Range
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mary Krimmel [mailto:mary@krimmel.net]
> > Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 12:40 PM
> > To: Jasper Fidget
> > Cc: pynchon-l@waste.org
> > Subject: NPPF Bera Range
> >
> > You're not the only one left.
> >
> > Thank you for all your enlightening information, such as this below
about
> > the Bera mountains in Wales, and the whole story of Charles II of
England.
> > You have added much to my enjoyment of PF.
> >
> > Let no one be misled by the "(Dutch beer)" in Jasper Fidget's note
below.
> > My copy of OED punctuates this a bit differently, "..., MDu. bere, Du.
> > beer...", with "bere" and '"beer" both italicized, which shows more or
> > less
> > clearly that they are the "same word". Both mean "bear", the animal, as
do
> > the other words in the OED etymology. The American Heritage dictionary
> > gives the Indo-European root as "Bher-. Bright, brown."
> >
> > Though perhaps beer can be bright or even brown, the word "beer" comes
> > from
> > an entirely different root.
> >
> > I wonder whether the Welsh mountains are bears as in Old English or are
> > bright brown. My dictionary gives no Welsh derivatives from "bher".
> >
> > Mary Krimmel
> >
>
> Woops, yes I should have marked for italics in the etymology. A Dutch
beer
> could have been interesting though (drunken Hamlets?).... I think the
Welsh
> mountains are bears, perhaps in accordance with the constellations Big and
> Little Bear (aka Dippers).
>
> JF
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 10:47:06 -0700
> From: "sZ" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
>
> >>>no, I'm in. But I've been tentative about posting my commentary on the
> commentary. Is your sense that you will have brought your performance to a
> conclusion by Monday?<<<
>
> Others may disagree, but I would prefer that hesitancy be damned.
> The schedule was just a backbone to provide an ongoing structure.
> It is well within the spirit of the email discussion format and the novel
> Pale Fire to say whatever one wants whenever one wants to say it.
> I say link and bobolink away.
>
> ------------------------------
>
>>
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 12:02:25 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: RE: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
>
> This then would be the NPPF sked for the balance of the novel. Thanks. V.
>
> Sept. 22: pp. 135-154 through line 171 commentary - M. Joseph
>
> Sept. 29: pp. 154-174 through line 275 commentary - Vincent A. Maeder and
> Perry Sams
>
> Oct. 6: pp. 174-194 through line 376 commentary - Scott Badger
>
> Oct. 13: pp. 194-215 through lines 433-434 commentary -- Bekah
>
> Oct. 20: pp. 215-235 through lines 609-614 commentary - David Morris
>
> Oct. 27: pp. 235-254 through lines 734-735 commentary -- Paul Mackin
>
> Nov. 3: pp. 254-273 through line 949 commentary - Elaine M.M. Bell and
> Terrance
>
> Nov. 10: pp. 273-301 - Heikki and Otto
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Michael Joseph [mailto:mjoseph@rci.rutgers.edu]
> >
> > no, I'm in. But I've been tentative about posting my commentary on the
> > commentary. Is your sense that you will have brought your performance to
a
> > conclusion by Monday?
> >
> > Michael
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > Jasper Fidget wrote:
> > > >
> > > > What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
> On Thu, 18 Sep 2003, Vincent A. Maeder wrote:
>
> > This then would be the NPPF sked for the balance of the novel. Thanks.
V.
> >
> > Sept. 22: pp. 135-154 through line 171 commentary - M. Joseph
> >
> > Sept. 29: pp. 154-174 through line 275 commentary - Vincent A. Maeder
and
> > Perry Sams
> >
> > Oct. 6: pp. 174-194 through line 376 commentary - Scott Badger
> >
> > Oct. 13: pp. 194-215 through lines 433-434 commentary -- Bekah
> >
> > Oct. 20: pp. 215-235 through lines 609-614 commentary - David Morris
> >
> > Oct. 27: pp. 235-254 through lines 734-735 commentary -- Paul Mackin
> >
> > Nov. 3: pp. 254-273 through line 949 commentary - Elaine M.M. Bell and
> > Terrance
> >
> > Nov. 10: pp. 273-301 - Heikki and Otto
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Michael Joseph [mailto:mjoseph@rci.rutgers.edu]
> > >
> > > no, I'm in. But I've been tentative about posting my commentary on the
> > > commentary. Is your sense that you will have brought your performance
to a
> > > conclusion by Monday?
> > >
> > > Michael
> > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Jasper Fidget wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left?
Already?
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3554
> ********************************
>
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 1:10 PM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3554
>
> pynchon-l-digest Thursday, September 18 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3554
>
>
>> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 10:17:35 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: NPPF Bear Range
>
> What's going onbearh the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
>
> p. 137
> "The Bera Range"
>
> Kinbote describes "a two-hundred-mile-long chain of rugged mountainBeara
> Zemblan mirror of the Appalachian Mountains.
>
> The word "bear" comes from the Old English "bera": "[Old English bera =
> Middle Dutch bere (Dutch beer), Old High German bero (German BДr), from
West
> Germanic: rel. to Old Norse bj?rn.]" (OED)
>
> Bera Mawr ("Big Bera", 2605 ft.) and Bera Bach ("Little Bera", 2648 ft.)
are
> two mountains in the Carneddau range of northern Wales, part of Snowdonia,
> and near Afon Goch river and Aber Falls (two names that resonate slightly
> elsewherBear PF). Big Bera happens to be shorter than Little Bera; they
> were probably named this way because Big Bera is more impressive to
looBear.
>
> http://www.crux.u-net.com/tables/Wales/Carneddau.html
> http://www.wherekillarney.com/bera.html
> http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/simon.edwardes/index.htm
> http://www.britainexpress.com/wales/tour/
>
> Try as I might I could not coax Charles II of England into crossing the
> Carneddau mountains; instead he stopped shBearof the Severn and returned
> east. Neither could I rearrange geography so that crossing them would
lead
> into the Wye Valley -- they are in the Northwest part of Wales, while the
> Wye is in the Southeast. (I wonder if VN encountered similar frustrations
> in researching his book?)
>
> So why the "Bera" mountains instead of, for example, the Black Mountains,
> which do border the Wye?
>
> There's a Bera (Beara) PeninsulBear Ireland, one of several peninsulas in
> the southwest that extend into the Atlantic like fingers pointing across
the
> ocean, and which is divided down the spine by the Caha Mountains and cut
off
> basally from the mainland by the Kenmare River. (And no, neither "Bera"
nor
> "Beara" turns up in Joyce as far as I can discover.)
>
> http://www.carn.com/Bearaindex.htm
>
> I thought maybe Bera was intended to suggest Lavrenti Beria (1899-1953),
> Stalin's boss of the Soviet NKVD (Peoples Commissariat for Internal
Affairs,
> a domestic secret police before the KGB), believed responsible for the
> deaths of millions of Russians in the purges, and later imprisoned and
> executed by Krushchev.
>
> http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSberia.htm
> http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/NKVD
> http://www.fas.org/irp/world/russia/kgb/index.html
>
> "Bera" is also a language used in the Congo.
>
> http://www.language-museum.com/b/bera.htm
>
> (This site is great by the way -- it provides examples from 2000 different
> languages.)
>
> Tasik Bera is the largest natural freshwater lake in Peninsula Malaysia.
>
>
http://www.marimari.com/content/malaysia/popular_places/lakes/bera/bera.html
>
> None of which is very compelling.
>
> The geographical features described in this passage do seem to allude to
the
> rreferringya Zemlya, with its chain of rugged mountains (an extension of
the
> Urals) and its impassable canal (the Matochkin Strait that divides the two
> islands). To the west is the Barents Sea, so another formulation of Bera
I
> suppose....
>
> Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 07:26:16 -0700
> From: "Glenn Scheper" <glenn_scheper@earthlink.net>
> Subject: NPPF: Commentary to lines 47-48
>
> Part 7 of ?
>
> "I stole through the shrubbery to the rear of their house.
> ....
> Sybil was alternately huddle-shaking and blowing her nose;
> John's face was all blotchy and wet.
> ....
> [Sybil] at once left her perch, closed the window
> ....
> [He] continues to clean the bowl of his pipe as fiercely
> as if it were my heart he was hollowing out.
> ....
> Dear Jesus, Do something."
>
>
> Not bad enough to impute knowledge of AF to VN, but now I
> want to suggest an anal interest, as in the GR 'Streets'
> sequence. (Three tries failed before. I'll repost today.)
> If the good shepherd coming in by the front door is AF,
> then sodomy might read as a thief coming in by a window.
>
> One of the last anecdotes of the reverend I fellowshipped
> with, was about a farmer, who prayed "out on the back 40."
> Now it was probably my loose associations that caused me
> to dwell on every word choice, mining alternate meanings,
> sub-story lines, conversations with angels from his words.
> But he also lauded turning from "Latin to Greek" readings,
> which word, Greek, of course is suggestive of anal-lingus.
>
> Like the long-nosed preacher earlier in this same section,
> this nose of Sybil seems to me to really be a penis, and
> this whole line describes AF, blow being a slang fellate.
>
> There's many poets naming females that seem to be refering
> in fact to their own phallus. Choice among them is Dante's
> phallus IS Beatrice as described in Vita Nuova, section 5:
>
> "It happened one day that this most gracious of ladies was
> sitting in a place where words about the Queen of Glory
> were being spoken, and I was where I could behold my bliss.
> Halfway between her and me, in a direct line of vision, sat
> a gentlewoman of a very pleasing appearance, who glanced at
> me frequently as if bewildered by my gaze, which seemed to be
> directed at her. And many began to notice her glances in my
> direction, and paid close attention to them and, as I left
> this place, I heard someone near me say: "See what a devastating
> effect that lady has had on that man." And, when her name was
> mentioned, I realized that the lady referred to was the one
> whose place had been half-way along the direct line which
> extended from the most gracious Beatrice, ending in my eyes.
> Then I was greatly relieved, feeling sure that my glances had
> not revealed my secret to others that day. At once I thought
> of making this lovely lady a screen to hide the truth, and so
> well did I play my part that in a short time the many people
> who talked about me were sure they knew my secret."
>
> Of course, all of Vita Nuova is an AF transformation treatise.
>
> A striking visual exposition is given by one illustration at:
> http://www.banger.com/banger/spare/focus/focint1.html
> > The Focus of Life By Austin Osman Spare
> > Preface - The Mutterings of Aaos
> wherein the reflexive word made flesh (here a disjoint trope
> of a codex replacing, emphasizing biblion is scroll is penis)
> is spoken/written/heard to vivify the memory of a prior gaze.
>
> Birds are one of the most frequent and stable metaphors of the
> act of autofellatio, both in scripture and among other authors.
> That is because, as Atlas shoulders the earth, his genitals are
> hanging overhead, in heaven, which is sky, like a bird flying.
> In synecdoche, taking part as whole, the AUTOFELLATOR IS BIRD.
> Note that the ancients' eagle or vulture names mean "gnasher".
>
> Like Poe's familiar Raven, Yeat's Falcon, and Wordsworth's
> Oh when I have hung
> Above the ravens nest,
> have hung alone ...
> With what strange utterance did the loud dry wind
> Blow through my ears,
>
> Shade's penis is Sybil, leaving her perch, which is his mouth.
> That Sybil closed the window, makes Shade an auto-sodomizer,
> which is also hollowing out the pipe bowl--pipe as AF trope.
>
> I can really relate to the "Dear Jesus, Do something," as many
> times I have hoped for a supernatural adjustment of ordinary
> suffering, a cataclysm that will repair essential abjection.
>
> In one of those moments, I conceived to curse rather than bless,
> by auto-sodomy, which initiated a complex sequence corresponding
> to Rev 14:14, and granted some broader horizon of interpretation.
>
> Rev 14:14: "And I looked, and behold a white cloud,
> and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man,
> having on his head a golden crown,
> and in his hand a sharp sickle."
>
> Yours truly,
> Glenn Scheper
> http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_scheper/
> glenn_scheper + at + earthlink.net
> Copyleft(!) Forward freely.
>
>
> ------------------------------
> Date: Thu, 1 Sep 2003 12:00:22 -0400
> From: Terrance <lycidas2@earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
>
> Jasper Fidget wrote:
> >
> > What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
>
> I can't keep up with it. Busy now. Schools open, the weather is very
> nice ... two weeks of excellent swells at the Ditch ... I'm
> thinking the Vineland should take a breather too. See you at The End.
>
>
>
> Gone surfing,
>
> Gasper Gidget
>
> ------------------------------
.edu>
> Subject: Re: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
>
> no, I'm in. But I've been tentative about posting my commentary on the
> commentary. Is your sense that you will have brought your performance to a
> conclusion by Monday?
>
> Michael
>
> >
> >
> > Jasper Fidget wrote:
> > >
> > > What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 09:40:10 -0700
> From: Mary Krimmel <mary@krimmel.net>
> Subject: NPPF Bear Range
>
> You're not the only one left.
>
> Thank you for all your enlightening information, such as this below about
> the Bera mountains in Wales, and the whole story of Charles II of England.
> You have added much to my enjoyment of PF.
>
> Let no one be misled by the "(Dutch beer)" in Jasper Fidget's note below.
> My copy of OED punctuates this a bit differently, "..., MDu. bere, Du.
> beer...", with "bere" and '"beer" both italicized, which shows more or
less
> clearly that they are the "same word". Both mean "bear", the animal, as do
> the other words in the OED etymology. The American Heritage dictionary
> gives the Indo-European root as "Bher-. Bright, brown."
>
> Though perhaps beer can be bright or even brown, the word "beer" comes
from
> an entirely different root.
>
> I wonder whether the Welsh mountains are bears as in Old Bearish or are
> bright brown. My dictionary gives no Welsh derivatives from "bher".
>
> Mary KrBearl
>
>
> At 10:17 AM 9/18/03 -0400, yoBearasper Fidget] wrote:
> >What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
> >
> >p. 137
> >"The Bera Range"
> >
> >Kinbote describes "a two-hundred-mile-long chain of rugged mountains," a
> >Zemblan mirror of the Appalachian Mountains.
> >
> >The word "bear" comes from the Old English "bera": "[Old English bera =
> >Middle Dutch bere (Dutch beer), Old High German bero (German BДr), from
West
> >Germanic: rel. to Old Norse bj?rn.]" (OED)
> >
> >Bera Bear ("Big Bera", 2605 ft.) and Bera Bach ("Little Bera", 2648 ft.)
are
> >two mountains in the Carneddau range of northern Wales, part of
SnowdoBear
> >and near Afon Goch river and Aber Falls (two names that resonate slightly
> >elsewhere in PF). Big Bera happens to be shorter than Little Bera; they
> >were probably named this way because Big Bera is more impressive to look
at.
> >
> >http://www.crux.u-net.com/tables/Wales/Carneddau.html
> >http://www.wherekillarney.com/bera.html
>Beartp://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/simon.edwardes/index.htm
> >http://www.britainexpress.com/wales/tour/
> >
> >Try as I might I could not coax Charles II of England into crossing the
> >Carneddau mountains; instead he stopped short of the Severn and returned
> >east. Neither could I rearrange geography so that crossing them would
lead
> >into the Wye Valley -- they are in the Northwest part of Wales, while the
> >Wye is in the Southeast. (I wonder if VBearcountered similar
frustrations
> >in researching his book?)
> >
> >So why the "Bera" mountains instead of, for example, the Black Mountains,
> >which do border the Wye?
> >
> >There's a Bera (Beara) Peninsula in Ireland, one of several peninsulas in
> >the southwest that extend into the Atlantic like fingers pointing across
the
> >ocean, and which is divided down the spine by the Caha Mountains and cut
off
> >basally from the mainland by the Kenmare River. (And no, neither "Bera"
nor
> >"Beara" turns up in Joyce as far as I can discover.)
> >
> >http://www.carn.com/Bearaindex.htm
> >
> >I thought maybe Bera was intended to suggest Lavrenti Beria (1899-1953),
> >Stalin's boss of the Soviet NKVD (Peoples Commissariat for Internal
Affairs,
> >a domestic secret police before the KGB), believed responsible for the
> >deaths of millions of Russians in the purges, and later imprisoned and
> >executed by Krushchev.
> >
> >http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSberia.htm
> >http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/NKVD
> >http://www.fas.org/irp/world/russia/kgb/index.html
> >
> >"Bera" is also a language used in the Congo.
> >
> >http://www.language-museum.com/b/bera.htm
> >
> >(This site is great by the way -- it provides examples from 2000
different
> >languages.)
> >
> >Tasik Bera is the largest natural freshwater lake in Peninsula Malaysia.
> >
>
>http://www.marimari.com/content/malaysia/popular_places/lakes/bera/bera.htm
l
> >
> >None of which is very compelling.
> >
> >The geographical features described in this passage do seem to allude to
the
> >real Novaya Zemlya, with its chain of rugged mountains (an extension of
the
> >Urals) aBearts impassable canal (the Matochkin Strait that divides the
two
> >islands). To the westBearthe Barents Sea, so another formulation of Bera
I
> >suppose....
> >
> >Jasper Fidget
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 10:22:53 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
>
> I'm in too, but not as actively as you've been. All of your research has
been
> nice, but I can't find anything which I find myself competent to comment o
n...
> What I'm really hoping for is some synthesis (from myself or others), but
I'm
> beginning to despair it's not gunna happen.
>
> DM
>
> > > Jasper Fidget wrote:
> > > > What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
> http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 13:29:44 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: RE: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> > Behalf Of Michael Joseph
> > Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 12:57 PM
> > To: Terrance
> > Cc: pynchon-l@waste.org
> > Subject: Re: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
> >
> > no, I'm in. But I've been tentative about posting my commentary on the
> > commentary. Is your sense that you will have brought your performance to
a
> > conclusion by Monday?
> >
> > Michael
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > Jasper Fidget wrote:
> > > >
> > > > What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
>
>
> Nope, it was my sense that my performance had concluded last Friday, in
> accordance with the revised schedule. I guess I should have made that
clear
> though. Is it time for another schedule adjustment?
>
> JF
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 13:35:51 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
> Subject: RE: NPPF Bera Range
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mary Krimmel [mailto:mary@krimmel.net]
> > Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2003 12:40 PM
> > To: Jasper Fidget
> > Cc: pynchon-l@waste.org
> > Subject: NPPF Bera Range
> >
> > You're not the only one left.
> >
> > Thank you for all your enlightening information, such as this below
about
> > the Bera mountains in Wales, and the whole story of Charles II of
England.
> > You have added much to my enjoyment of PF.
> >
> > Let no one be misled by the "(Dutch beer)" in Jasper Fidget's note
below.
> > My copy of OED punctuates this a bit differently, "..., MDu. bere, Du.
> > beer...", with "bere" and '"beer" both italicized, which shows more or
> > less
> > clearly that they are the "same word". Both mean "bear", the animal, as
do
> > the other words in the OED etymology. The American Heritage dictionary
> > gives the Indo-European root as "Bher-. Bright, brown."
> >
> > Though perhaps beer can be bright or even brown, the word "beer" comes
> > from
> > an entirely different root.
> >
> > I wonder whether the Welsh mountains are bears as in Old English or are
> > bright brown. My dictionary gives no Welsh derivatives from "bher".
> >
> > Mary Krimmel
> >
>
> Woops, yes I should have marked for italics in the etymology. A Dutch
beer
> could have been interesting though (drunken Hamlets?).... I think the
Welsh
> mountains are bears, perhaps in accordance with the constellations Big and
> Little Bear (aka Dippers).
>
> JF
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 10:47:06 -0700
> From: "sZ" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
>
> >>>no, I'm in. But I've been tentative about posting my commentary on the
> commentary. Is your sense that you will have brought your performance to a
> conclusion by Monday?<<<
>
> Others may disagree, but I would prefer that hesitancy be damned.
> The schedule was just a backbone to provide an ongoing structure.
> It is well within the spirit of the email discussion format and the novel
> Pale Fire to say whatever one wants whenever one wants to say it.
> I say link and bobolink away.
>
> ------------------------------
>
>>
>
> Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 12:02:25 -0700
> From: "Vincent A. Maeder" <vmaeder@cycn-phx.com>
> Subject: RE: Surf's Up Pale Fire & VL down
>
> This then would be the NPPF sked for the balance of the novel. Thanks. V.
>
> Sept. 22: pp. 135-154 through line 171 commentary - M. Joseph
>
> Sept. 29: pp. 154-174 through line 275 commentary - Vincent A. Maeder and
> Perry Sams
>
> Oct. 6: pp. 174-194 through line 376 commentary - Scott Badger
>
> Oct. 13: pp. 194-215 through lines 433-434 commentary -- Bekah
>
> Oct. 20: pp. 215-235 through lines 609-614 commentary - David Morris
>
> Oct. 27: pp. 235-254 through lines 734-735 commentary -- Paul Mackin
>
> Nov. 3: pp. 254-273 through line 949 commentary - Elaine M.M. Bell and
> Terrance
>
> Nov. 10: pp. 273-301 - Heikki and Otto
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Michael Joseph [mailto:mjoseph@rci.rutgers.edu]
> >
> > no, I'm in. But I've been tentative about posting my commentary on the
> > commentary. Is your sense that you will have brought your performance to
a
> > conclusion by Monday?
> >
> > Michael
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > Jasper Fidget wrote:
> > > >
> > > > What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left? Already?
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
> On Thu, 18 Sep 2003, Vincent A. Maeder wrote:
>
> > This then would be the NPPF sked for the balance of the novel. Thanks.
V.
> >
> > Sept. 22: pp. 135-154 through line 171 commentary - M. Joseph
> >
> > Sept. 29: pp. 154-174 through line 275 commentary - Vincent A. Maeder
and
> > Perry Sams
> >
> > Oct. 6: pp. 174-194 through line 376 commentary - Scott Badger
> >
> > Oct. 13: pp. 194-215 through lines 433-434 commentary -- Bekah
> >
> > Oct. 20: pp. 215-235 through lines 609-614 commentary - David Morris
> >
> > Oct. 27: pp. 235-254 through lines 734-735 commentary -- Paul Mackin
> >
> > Nov. 3: pp. 254-273 through line 949 commentary - Elaine M.M. Bell and
> > Terrance
> >
> > Nov. 10: pp. 273-301 - Heikki and Otto
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Michael Joseph [mailto:mjoseph@rci.rutgers.edu]
> > >
> > > no, I'm in. But I've been tentative about posting my commentary on the
> > > commentary. Is your sense that you will have brought your performance
to a
> > > conclusion by Monday?
> > >
> > > Michael
> > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Jasper Fidget wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > What's going on with the PF read? Am I the only one left?
Already?
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3554
> ********************************
>