Subject
Fw: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3434 PALE FIRE Some good info in
this one.
this one.
From
Date
Body
----- Original Message -----
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 11:14 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3434
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 11:31:59 -0400
> From: "cfalbert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> David Morris:
>
> > > Lemniscate - (OED) [lemniscotus - adorned with ribbons] The
designation
> of
> > certain closed curves having a general resemblance to the figure 8.
> >
> > As Kinbote comments, it's hard to figure out what this figure has to do
> with a
> > bicycle (but the image of two circles being connected (and an important
> sight
> > of bicycle wheels) will recur a number of times further into the text in
> > significant ways).
>
> Picture a rider sufficiently "deft" to "close" a curved shape generated by
a
> front tire, with that generated by the back.....Sort of a solo "Powder
8".
>
> " Of course this is the infinity symbol. It is also closely
> > related to the two-winged creature "infinite past, infinite future" just
a
> few
> > lines down, where the individual occupies the intersction of the tewo
> realms.
> > I vaguely remember reading something about N's concept of time being
like
> > this..."
>
> There will be more on this............when thinking lemniscates, don't
> forget torques - or ampersands...........
>
>
> love,
> cfa
>
>
> >
> > David Morris
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 12:09:36 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> > Subject: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1) on behalf of Charles
> >
> > Waxwing - "Cedar Waxwings are sleek, elegant birds with long wings,
rather
> > short tails, and a crest. They have a short, broad bill and short legs.
> > Both
> > sexes look alike. Adults are buffy brown on the head and back. The brown
> > color shades to pale yellow on the belly and to gray brown on the back,
> > fading further to slate gray on the rump and upper tail. The tail is
> > tipped
> > with a yellow band. The undertail coverts are white. The legs and feet
are
> > black. Adults have a narrow, black mask outlined in white that extends
> > over
> > the face to end behind each eye in a point. The chin is black. At the
end
> > of
> > each secondary feather, the shaft is extended as a small, red, wax-like
> > appendage. The number of these waxy appendages increases with age, until
> > adult plumage is attained."
> >
> > http://birds.cornell.edu/BOW/CEDWAX/
> >
>
> Some more on waxwings for those interested:
>
> There are three members in the Waxwing family: Bombycilla cedrorum (Cedar
> Waxwing or Cedar Bird), Bombycilla garrulous (Bohemian Waxwing), and
> Bombycilla japonica (Japanese Waxwing).
>
> Some ancient Europeans believed the red spots in the Bohemian waxwing's
> feathers to be sparks of fire, and considered the bird a bringer of fire.
> Many European regions considered the bird a harbinger of war, death,
> disaster, or pestilence. (So "Pale Fire" then begins with a messenger
bird,
> just like Vineland [connection for Doug].)
>
> There's nothing about the bird itself that should have inspired such a bad
> rep (just the opposite really). Perhaps the idea of messenger or
harbinger
> came about because the waxwing has an unpredictable migration; it's a
roving
> gypsy bird driven in flocks mainly in a search for food. In German
> folklore, it's said that seven years must pass before their return (as
with
> locust).
>
> They feed mainly upon berries, notably the juniper (a shrub that has some
> significance in Pale Fire) in the winter, when lack of food drives them
into
> northern US states, and also upon insects, worms, and flowers. They have
an
> unusual propensity for sharing food; ornithologist Thomas Nuttall recorded
> observing cedar waxwings passing a berry or a worm from beak to beak along
a
> line of them and then back again. Sharing food also takes place in a
mating
> ritual where the male will offer the female a berry or an insect, the
female
> will take it, hop away, hop back, and return the food, repeating several
> times until the female finally eats it (then they get busy). They are
> voracious eaters, and sometimes consume such quantities of overripe fruit
> that they become intoxicated; John Audubon noted that he would sometimes
> find them too drunk to fly, and could pick them up and move them in front
of
> his canvas.
>
> They are quiet and gentle birds who nest in pairs and lay white eggs with
> black spots. The black coloring around their eyes looks like a mask (like
a
> raccoon's, a mask a bandit might wear), and there is a Native American
> legend concerning how they acquired this mask (for which I can find no
> internet link at the moment).
>
> Other names for the cedar waxwing include cherry-bird, Canada Robin, and
> Recollet (to French Canadians due to the resemblance of the color of their
> crest to the Recollet religious order).
>
> http://www.northbirding.com/idtraining/guide/ch5sec5b.htm#CEDAR%20BIRD
>
>
http://www.northbirding.com/idtraining/guide/ch5sec3.htm#BOHEMIAN%20WAXWING
>
> http://www.wordwiz72.com/waxwing.html
>
> sezJasper
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:10:01 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (misc note)
>
> Line 79: "A preterist, one who collects cold nests."
>
> preterist
> \Pret"er*ist\, n. [Pref. preter- + -ist.] 1. One whose chief interest is
in the
> past; one who regards the past with most pleasure or favor.
>
> 2. (Theol.) One who believes the prophecies of the Apocalypse to have been
> already fulfilled.
> preter-
> \Pre"ter-\ [L. praeter past, beyond, originally a compar. of prae before.
See
> For, prep.] A prefix signifying past, by, beyond, more than; as, preter-
> mission, a permitting to go by; preternatural, beyond or more than is
natural.
> [Written also pr[ae]ter.]
>
> Note the similar-sounding word ⌠pederast,■ which is used later in the
book:
>
> Main Entry: ped╥er╥ast
> Pronunciation: 'pe-d&-"rast
> Function: noun
> Etymology: Greek paiderastEs, literally, lover of boys, from paid- ped- +
> erastEs lover, from erasthai to love -- more at EROS
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 17:22:17 +0100
> From: "James Kyllo" <jkyllo@clara.net>
> Subject: NPPF manuscript
>
> of a section from the first canto at:
>
> http://users.hartwick.edu/codyd/Indexcard.html
>
>
> James
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 18:07:58 +0200
> From: "Otto" <ottosell@yahoo.de>
> Subject: NPPF
>
>
> Ver(b)rannt im Fahlen Feuer
> Ein Karteikartenkommentar
> von Markus Krajewski
> http://www.verzetteln.de/krajewski_fahlesfeuer.pdf
>
> Essay on Man
> by Alexander Pope
> http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext00/esymn10.txt
>
> Kurzbiographie
> http://www.lettern.de/spnabo1.htm
>
> Zeitgenossen
> http://www.richard-dehmel.de/rdehmel/zeitgenossen/nabokov.html
>
> Rezension "Fahles Feuer" mit Kommentaren
> http://www.ronsens.de/191.html
>
> Nabokov im deutschsprachigen Zeitungen und im Internet
> http://mitglied.lycos.de/antiterra/nabokov.html
>
> Anl=E4=DFlich des 100. Geburtstages von Vladimir Nabokov am 22. April =
> 1999=20
> Von Mareile Ahrndt=20
> http://www.literaturkritik.de/txt/1999-04-31.html
>
> Bilder
> http://mitglied.lycos.de/siorac/id9.htm
>
> Dieter E. Zimmer Homepage
> http://www.d-e-zimmer.de/index.html
>
>> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 18:09:08 +0200
> From: "Otto" <ottosell@yahoo.de>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> Lemniskate
> http://www.mathe-online.at/materialien/karlheinz.haas/files/FamousCurves/=
> Lemniskate.html=20
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:25:41 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (misc note)
>
> Then there is "peristalsis", a word that also,
> interestingly enough, starts with p and uses the
> letters t, r, and s:
>
> per╥i╥stal╥sis ( P ) Pronunciation
> Key (pr-stТlss, -stl-)
> n. pl. per╥i╥stal╥ses (-sz)
>
> The wavelike muscular contractions of the alimentary
> canal or other tubular structures by which contents
> are forced onward toward the opening.
>
>
> fqmorris@yahoo.com:
> >
> > Line 79: "A preterist, one who collects cold
> > nests."
> >
> >
> > Note the similar-sounding word ⌠pederast,■ which is
> > used later in the book:
> >
> > Main Entry: ped╥er╥ast
> > Pronunciation: 'pe-d&-"rast
> > Function: noun
> > Etymology: Greek paiderastEs, literally, lover of
> > boys, from paid- ped- +
> > erastEs lover, from erasthai to love -- more at EROS
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 12:22:38 -0400
> From: "cfalbert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> Boyd also notes the similarity twixt Cedar, and Cedarn, the "cave" from
> whence Kinbote corresponds...
>
> " From the relationship between the waxwing of line 1 (a cedar waxwing)
and
> Cedarn, the "ghost town" (C. 609-14, 235) where Kinbote sits as he writes
> his commentary under Shade's influence, to the wheelbarrow in line 999
that
> precedes by a moment Shade's death and so recalls the toy wheelbarrow
> preceding the childhood fits in which Shade was "tugged at by playful
death"
> (P.140),20 the poem now explodes with "richly rhymed life" to a degree the
> mortal Shade could never have imagined. "
>
> http://www.libraries.psu.edu/iasweb/nabokov/boydpf6.htm
>
> love,
> cfa
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 12:30:39 -0400
> From: "cfalbert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----=20
> From: Otto=20
> To: pynchon-l@waste.org=20
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 12:07 PM
> Subject: NPPF
>
>
>
> Essay on Man
> by Alexander Pope
> http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext00/esymn10.txt
>
>
> This is as good a time as any to raise this........It is important to =
> understand that Pope serves a specific, rather than a general (such as =
> Wordsworth and Goldsmith) purpose in PF. Clearly his epigrammatic =
> concerns are shared by Nabokov, but they are not the "driving force" of =
> Pale Fire.=20
>
> The particular excerpt upon which N relies for Zembla deals, on the =
> literal level - with the absolute location of "north", but on the =
> figurative one, with the "boundaries of virtue and vice". As such it may =
> shed light on Nabokov's intentions with respect to Kinbote's prurient =
> excesses and our response to them.....
>
> love,
> cfa
>
> love,
> cfa
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "pynchonoid" <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> To: <pynchon-l@waste.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 12:25 PM
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (misc note)
>
>
> > Then there is "peristalsis", a word that also,
> > interestingly enough, starts with p and uses the
> > letters t, r, and s:
> >
> > per╥i╥stal╥sis ( P ) Pronunciation
> > Key (pr-stТlss, -stl-)
> > n. pl. per╥i╥stal╥ses (-sz)
> >
> > The wavelike muscular contractions of the alimentary
> > canal or other tubular structures by which contents
> > are forced onward toward the opening.
> >
> >
> > fqmorris@yahoo.com:
> > >
> > > Line 79: "A preterist, one who collects cold
> > > nests."
> > >
> > >
> > > Note the similar-sounding word "pederast," which is
> > > used later in the book:
> > >
> > > Main Entry: ped╥er╥ast
> > > Pronunciation: 'pe-d&-"rast
> > > Function: noun
> > > Etymology: Greek paiderastEs, literally, lover of
> > > boys, from paid- ped- +
> > > erastEs lover, from erasthai to love -- more at EROS
> > >
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 12:39:36 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: CANTO ONE NOTES
>
> [continuing on behalf of Charles -jf]
>
> Shall we call this the slightly more nuanced reading?
>
> As has been suggested of the Foreword, Canto One introduces, and develops
> narrative elements, but also delves more deeply into the symbolic themes
and
> structural clues which intend to both illuminate and obscure the path
ahead.
> The symbolic themes of man vs. nature, longing, the prodigal, and
> resurrection are introduced. Color keys are offered - the red AND grey of
> the waxwing, echoing the red associated with the Zemblan throne as well as
> the grey of Shade and Gradus (ashen). There is the obvious seasonal cycle,
> which is re-enforced (after the opening couplets) by the shift from mono-
> to multi-chromatic color schemes and back again. We are offered patterns
in
> shapes, circles- and their more convoluted cousins, torques, vermiculates,
> paperclips, the prone eight of "infinity"and lemniscates. We also get the
> recurring "V"s, waxwing, the "wings" of "foretime" and "aftertime". The
> "author/reader" relationship is certainly hinted at, explicitly, by way of
> the aforementioned debate on illusion, but also implicitly by the use of
> ambiguous, often "circular" clues, the distortion of the "senses", and the
> employment of paradox.
>
> What opens as an orthodox elegiac piece, deftly skirts "mawkishness" by
> turning from the poignant opening image to the disputation on the nature
of
> illusion. The doubt about "narrator" is enhanced by his/her identification
> with both the shadow of the waxwing, as well as the "illusionist"
> manipulating the images described with the glass. The palpably real on
> either side of the pane is juxtaposed in such a way as to defy reason
while
> satisfying the eye "chair and bed exactly stand/upon that snow".......
>
> The next verse confirms the circular ( and "re-incarnative") theme with
> "REtake the falling snow", and offers the paradoxical contrast of white on
> white " a dull dark white against the day's pale white". There is a
distinct
> echo of the pale fire of Timon of Athens and (this is where I will expose
> myself to potential ridicule), G. K. Chesterton and his The Man Who Would
Be
> Thursday. Take this, from page 48 "The moon was so strong and full, that
(by
> a paradox often to be noticed) it seemed like a weaker sun. It gave, not
the
> sense of bright moonshine, but rather, of a dead daylight."
>
> Chesterton's novel is subtitled "A Nightmare", but is presented in a
> straight narrative format, with the dreaming protagonist uncertain, even
> upon waking at the end of the novel, whether or not it has all been real.
> The story, richly allegorical, begins as a dispute between an anarchist
and
> "conservative", which resolves itself in a bet with twisted repercussions.
> The simple version is that the conservative winds up on THE "anarchists'"
> committee (named for the days of the week, his slot is "Thursday"), after
> having been recruited by an "off the book" division of Scotland Yard
> concerned with the maintenance of order and tradition. The "committee" has
> planned an assassination in France, and the first deputy of the chief has
> been sent ahead for preparations. The conservative determines to foil the
> plan, and one by one goes through the other committee members only to
> discover that they too are all double agents employed by the "Yard". They
> join forces to go after the deputy, and after a smashing sword fight, in
> which our hero literally hacks pieces off the "body" of the deputy (all
> disguise, natch), it is found that he is with the forces of good as well.
A
> spectacular chase, involving carriages and hot air balloons, ensues; the
> head anarchist is finally sufficiently proximate, before disappearing, to
> confirm that he is, in fact, the mysterious man who assigned our hero his
> task at Scotland Yard.
>
> But beyond the obvious parallel concerns with identities, N and C, both
> employ paradox to establish an essentially "manichean" faces of any
> particular object or phenomenon. But Nabokov's use is slightly different,
I
> believe. Jbor has commented that Nabokov likely "failed" in this effort to
> harness "ambiguity" in his service, and I am not qualified to take on that
> argument on Jbor's terms. I will suggest that the example of the use of
> paradox MAY be a hint at a greater "strategy". Given the undeniable
> authorial imprint on any effort, and the "narrow genesis" of its
> development, it is hard to fathom how one might incorporate the ambiguity,
> the unpredictability, of "real life", into a work of art. I propose that
> Nabokov employs devices like "doubtful directions", outright illusion, and
> paradoxes to simulate such a "fuzziness". I am reminded of the "anime
> verite" technique of "Squigglevision", as employed in the series Dr.
> Katz(WARNING PLUG! - and brilliantly incorporated into the movie
> State&Main). By means of a "flickering" of color and lines, the animators
> achieve an "acceptable" level of realism to the physical "dimension' of
the
> characters. A similar "flickering" aura surrounds the elements and clues
of
> PF.
>
> Paradoxes often posit a counterintuitive property of a object or process,
> and in PF, objects and processes are interlaced, torqued, if you will, in
a
> relational manic minuet, intended to both delight and frustrate....
>
> ------------------------------
>
> __________________________________
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:59:10 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Malignd <malignd@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (misc note)
>
> <<Line 79: "A preterist, one who collects cold
> nests."
>
> preterist
> \Pret"er*ist\, n. [Pref. preter- + -ist.] 1. One whose
> chief interest is in thepast; one who regards the past
> with most pleasure or favor.
>
> 2. (Theol.) One who believes the prophecies of the
> Apocalypse to have been already fulfilled.
> preter-
> \Pre"ter-\ [L. praeter past, beyond, originally a
> compar. of prae
> before. See
> For, prep.] A prefix signifying past, by, beyond, more
> than; as,
> preter-
> mission, a permitting to go by; preternatural, beyond
> or more than is
> natural.
> [Written also pr[ae]ter.]
>
> Note the similar-sounding word ⌠pederast,■ which is
> used later in the book:
>
> Main Entry: ped╥er╥ast
> Pronunciation: 'pe-d&-"rast
> Function: noun
> Etymology: Greek paiderastEs, literally, lover of
> boys, from paid- ped-
> +
> erastEs lover, from erasthai to love -- more at EROS>>
>
> Also, TP's use of the similar term "preterite," used
> (as I recall) by him to describe the passed over, the
> opposite of the elect in a Calvinist theology.
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
> http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 10:42:14 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE: Synopsis
>
> > A literal synopsis
> > Not required.........
>
> But a good idea...
>
> > The poem opens with the waxwing hitting the windowpane
>
> No, the phase is past tense thus not an "event" per se, which makes the
comment
> below possible, but I have other ideas. It's is not necesarily a
rememberance,
> but more an analogy re. himself.
>
> <(some suggest that the waxwing in question has been picked up by the boy
> Shade)
>
> Kinbote's suggestion of young Shades "experiencing his first
eschatalogical
> shock." But since his parent's are presumably long dead, the lad would
have
> some idea of the concept of death.
>
> David Morris
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 13:50:22 -0400
> From: "cfalbert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE: Synopsis
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Morris" <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> To: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>; <pynchon-l@waste.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 1:42 PM
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE: Synopsis
>
>
> >
> > > A literal synopsis
> > > Not required.........
> >
> > But a good idea...
> >
> > > The poem opens with the waxwing hitting the windowpane
> >
> > No, the phase is past tense thus not an "event" per se, which makes the
> comment
> > below possible, but I have other ideas. It's is not necesarily a
> rememberance,
> > but more an analogy re. himself.
>
> The list of potential analogues is enormous........Shade qualifies, as
(per
> MalignD) does Hazel. But so do Kinbote, potentially Botkin, as well as
"the
> reader".....
>
> The pane can represent numerous alternatives as well...
>
> It is, as I once suggested, a remarkably fecund metaphor....
>
> love,
> cfa
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 11:13:37 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE NOTES on behalf of Charles
>
>
> > Shade contrasts himself with the "vulgarian" who only sees the stars
when
> micturating.
>
> You saw the reference too (it is very obvious). It's really funny that he
> should call our heros of Ulysses "vulgarians."
>
> - ----------
>
> Were they indefinitely inactive?
>
> At Stephen's suggestion, at Bloom's instigation both, first Stephen, then
> Bloom, in penumbra urinated, their sides contiguous, their organs of
> micturition reciprocally rendered invisible by manual circumposition,
their
> gazes, first Bloom's, then Stephen's, elevated to the projected luminous
and
> semiluminous shadow.
>
> - ------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
>
> Similarly?
>
> The trajectories of their, first sequent, then simultaneous, urinations
were
> dissimilar: Bloom's longer, less irruent, in the incomplete form of the
> bifurcated penultimate alphabetical letter who in his ultimate year at
High
> School (1880) had been capable of attaining the point of greatest altitude
> against the whole concurrent strength of the institution, 210 scholars:
> Stephen's higher, more sibilant, who in the ultimate hours of the previous
day
> had augmented by diuretic consumption an insistent vesical pressure.
>
> - ------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
>
> What different problems presented themselves to each concerning the
invisible
> audible collateral organ of the other?
>
> To Bloom: the problems of irritability, tumescence, rigidity, reactivity,
> dimension, sanitariness, pelosity. To Stephen: the problem of the
sacerdotal
> integrity of Jesus circumcised (1st January, holiday of obligation to hear
mass
> and abstain from unnecessary servile work) and the problem as to whether
the
> divine prepuce, the carnal bridal ring of the holy Roman catholic
apostolic
> church, conserved in Calcata, were deserving of simple hyperduly or of the
> fourth degree of latria accorded to the abscission of such divine
excrescences
> as hair and toenails.
>
> - ------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
>
> What celestial sign was by both simultaneously observed?
>
> A star precipitated with great apparent velocity across the firmament from
Vega
> in the Lyre above the zenith beyond the stargroup of the Tress of Berenice
> towards the zodiacal sign of Leo.
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3434
> ********************************
>
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 11:14 AM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3434
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 11:31:59 -0400
> From: "cfalbert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> David Morris:
>
> > > Lemniscate - (OED) [lemniscotus - adorned with ribbons] The
designation
> of
> > certain closed curves having a general resemblance to the figure 8.
> >
> > As Kinbote comments, it's hard to figure out what this figure has to do
> with a
> > bicycle (but the image of two circles being connected (and an important
> sight
> > of bicycle wheels) will recur a number of times further into the text in
> > significant ways).
>
> Picture a rider sufficiently "deft" to "close" a curved shape generated by
a
> front tire, with that generated by the back.....Sort of a solo "Powder
8".
>
> " Of course this is the infinity symbol. It is also closely
> > related to the two-winged creature "infinite past, infinite future" just
a
> few
> > lines down, where the individual occupies the intersction of the tewo
> realms.
> > I vaguely remember reading something about N's concept of time being
like
> > this..."
>
> There will be more on this............when thinking lemniscates, don't
> forget torques - or ampersands...........
>
>
> love,
> cfa
>
>
> >
> > David Morris
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 12:09:36 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: RE: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> > Subject: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1) on behalf of Charles
> >
> > Waxwing - "Cedar Waxwings are sleek, elegant birds with long wings,
rather
> > short tails, and a crest. They have a short, broad bill and short legs.
> > Both
> > sexes look alike. Adults are buffy brown on the head and back. The brown
> > color shades to pale yellow on the belly and to gray brown on the back,
> > fading further to slate gray on the rump and upper tail. The tail is
> > tipped
> > with a yellow band. The undertail coverts are white. The legs and feet
are
> > black. Adults have a narrow, black mask outlined in white that extends
> > over
> > the face to end behind each eye in a point. The chin is black. At the
end
> > of
> > each secondary feather, the shaft is extended as a small, red, wax-like
> > appendage. The number of these waxy appendages increases with age, until
> > adult plumage is attained."
> >
> > http://birds.cornell.edu/BOW/CEDWAX/
> >
>
> Some more on waxwings for those interested:
>
> There are three members in the Waxwing family: Bombycilla cedrorum (Cedar
> Waxwing or Cedar Bird), Bombycilla garrulous (Bohemian Waxwing), and
> Bombycilla japonica (Japanese Waxwing).
>
> Some ancient Europeans believed the red spots in the Bohemian waxwing's
> feathers to be sparks of fire, and considered the bird a bringer of fire.
> Many European regions considered the bird a harbinger of war, death,
> disaster, or pestilence. (So "Pale Fire" then begins with a messenger
bird,
> just like Vineland [connection for Doug].)
>
> There's nothing about the bird itself that should have inspired such a bad
> rep (just the opposite really). Perhaps the idea of messenger or
harbinger
> came about because the waxwing has an unpredictable migration; it's a
roving
> gypsy bird driven in flocks mainly in a search for food. In German
> folklore, it's said that seven years must pass before their return (as
with
> locust).
>
> They feed mainly upon berries, notably the juniper (a shrub that has some
> significance in Pale Fire) in the winter, when lack of food drives them
into
> northern US states, and also upon insects, worms, and flowers. They have
an
> unusual propensity for sharing food; ornithologist Thomas Nuttall recorded
> observing cedar waxwings passing a berry or a worm from beak to beak along
a
> line of them and then back again. Sharing food also takes place in a
mating
> ritual where the male will offer the female a berry or an insect, the
female
> will take it, hop away, hop back, and return the food, repeating several
> times until the female finally eats it (then they get busy). They are
> voracious eaters, and sometimes consume such quantities of overripe fruit
> that they become intoxicated; John Audubon noted that he would sometimes
> find them too drunk to fly, and could pick them up and move them in front
of
> his canvas.
>
> They are quiet and gentle birds who nest in pairs and lay white eggs with
> black spots. The black coloring around their eyes looks like a mask (like
a
> raccoon's, a mask a bandit might wear), and there is a Native American
> legend concerning how they acquired this mask (for which I can find no
> internet link at the moment).
>
> Other names for the cedar waxwing include cherry-bird, Canada Robin, and
> Recollet (to French Canadians due to the resemblance of the color of their
> crest to the Recollet religious order).
>
> http://www.northbirding.com/idtraining/guide/ch5sec5b.htm#CEDAR%20BIRD
>
>
http://www.northbirding.com/idtraining/guide/ch5sec3.htm#BOHEMIAN%20WAXWING
>
> http://www.wordwiz72.com/waxwing.html
>
> sezJasper
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:10:01 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (misc note)
>
> Line 79: "A preterist, one who collects cold nests."
>
> preterist
> \Pret"er*ist\, n. [Pref. preter- + -ist.] 1. One whose chief interest is
in the
> past; one who regards the past with most pleasure or favor.
>
> 2. (Theol.) One who believes the prophecies of the Apocalypse to have been
> already fulfilled.
> preter-
> \Pre"ter-\ [L. praeter past, beyond, originally a compar. of prae before.
See
> For, prep.] A prefix signifying past, by, beyond, more than; as, preter-
> mission, a permitting to go by; preternatural, beyond or more than is
natural.
> [Written also pr[ae]ter.]
>
> Note the similar-sounding word ⌠pederast,■ which is used later in the
book:
>
> Main Entry: ped╥er╥ast
> Pronunciation: 'pe-d&-"rast
> Function: noun
> Etymology: Greek paiderastEs, literally, lover of boys, from paid- ped- +
> erastEs lover, from erasthai to love -- more at EROS
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 17:22:17 +0100
> From: "James Kyllo" <jkyllo@clara.net>
> Subject: NPPF manuscript
>
> of a section from the first canto at:
>
> http://users.hartwick.edu/codyd/Indexcard.html
>
>
> James
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 18:07:58 +0200
> From: "Otto" <ottosell@yahoo.de>
> Subject: NPPF
>
>
> Ver(b)rannt im Fahlen Feuer
> Ein Karteikartenkommentar
> von Markus Krajewski
> http://www.verzetteln.de/krajewski_fahlesfeuer.pdf
>
> Essay on Man
> by Alexander Pope
> http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext00/esymn10.txt
>
> Kurzbiographie
> http://www.lettern.de/spnabo1.htm
>
> Zeitgenossen
> http://www.richard-dehmel.de/rdehmel/zeitgenossen/nabokov.html
>
> Rezension "Fahles Feuer" mit Kommentaren
> http://www.ronsens.de/191.html
>
> Nabokov im deutschsprachigen Zeitungen und im Internet
> http://mitglied.lycos.de/antiterra/nabokov.html
>
> Anl=E4=DFlich des 100. Geburtstages von Vladimir Nabokov am 22. April =
> 1999=20
> Von Mareile Ahrndt=20
> http://www.literaturkritik.de/txt/1999-04-31.html
>
> Bilder
> http://mitglied.lycos.de/siorac/id9.htm
>
> Dieter E. Zimmer Homepage
> http://www.d-e-zimmer.de/index.html
>
>> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 18:09:08 +0200
> From: "Otto" <ottosell@yahoo.de>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> Lemniskate
> http://www.mathe-online.at/materialien/karlheinz.haas/files/FamousCurves/=
> Lemniskate.html=20
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:25:41 -0700 (PDT)
> From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (misc note)
>
> Then there is "peristalsis", a word that also,
> interestingly enough, starts with p and uses the
> letters t, r, and s:
>
> per╥i╥stal╥sis ( P ) Pronunciation
> Key (pr-stТlss, -stl-)
> n. pl. per╥i╥stal╥ses (-sz)
>
> The wavelike muscular contractions of the alimentary
> canal or other tubular structures by which contents
> are forced onward toward the opening.
>
>
> fqmorris@yahoo.com:
> >
> > Line 79: "A preterist, one who collects cold
> > nests."
> >
> >
> > Note the similar-sounding word ⌠pederast,■ which is
> > used later in the book:
> >
> > Main Entry: ped╥er╥ast
> > Pronunciation: 'pe-d&-"rast
> > Function: noun
> > Etymology: Greek paiderastEs, literally, lover of
> > boys, from paid- ped- +
> > erastEs lover, from erasthai to love -- more at EROS
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 12:22:38 -0400
> From: "cfalbert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (1)
>
> Boyd also notes the similarity twixt Cedar, and Cedarn, the "cave" from
> whence Kinbote corresponds...
>
> " From the relationship between the waxwing of line 1 (a cedar waxwing)
and
> Cedarn, the "ghost town" (C. 609-14, 235) where Kinbote sits as he writes
> his commentary under Shade's influence, to the wheelbarrow in line 999
that
> precedes by a moment Shade's death and so recalls the toy wheelbarrow
> preceding the childhood fits in which Shade was "tugged at by playful
death"
> (P.140),20 the poem now explodes with "richly rhymed life" to a degree the
> mortal Shade could never have imagined. "
>
> http://www.libraries.psu.edu/iasweb/nabokov/boydpf6.htm
>
> love,
> cfa
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 12:30:39 -0400
> From: "cfalbert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----=20
> From: Otto=20
> To: pynchon-l@waste.org=20
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 12:07 PM
> Subject: NPPF
>
>
>
> Essay on Man
> by Alexander Pope
> http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext00/esymn10.txt
>
>
> This is as good a time as any to raise this........It is important to =
> understand that Pope serves a specific, rather than a general (such as =
> Wordsworth and Goldsmith) purpose in PF. Clearly his epigrammatic =
> concerns are shared by Nabokov, but they are not the "driving force" of =
> Pale Fire.=20
>
> The particular excerpt upon which N relies for Zembla deals, on the =
> literal level - with the absolute location of "north", but on the =
> figurative one, with the "boundaries of virtue and vice". As such it may =
> shed light on Nabokov's intentions with respect to Kinbote's prurient =
> excesses and our response to them.....
>
> love,
> cfa
>
> love,
> cfa
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "pynchonoid" <pynchonoid@yahoo.com>
> To: <pynchon-l@waste.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 12:25 PM
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (misc note)
>
>
> > Then there is "peristalsis", a word that also,
> > interestingly enough, starts with p and uses the
> > letters t, r, and s:
> >
> > per╥i╥stal╥sis ( P ) Pronunciation
> > Key (pr-stТlss, -stl-)
> > n. pl. per╥i╥stal╥ses (-sz)
> >
> > The wavelike muscular contractions of the alimentary
> > canal or other tubular structures by which contents
> > are forced onward toward the opening.
> >
> >
> > fqmorris@yahoo.com:
> > >
> > > Line 79: "A preterist, one who collects cold
> > > nests."
> > >
> > >
> > > Note the similar-sounding word "pederast," which is
> > > used later in the book:
> > >
> > > Main Entry: ped╥er╥ast
> > > Pronunciation: 'pe-d&-"rast
> > > Function: noun
> > > Etymology: Greek paiderastEs, literally, lover of
> > > boys, from paid- ped- +
> > > erastEs lover, from erasthai to love -- more at EROS
> > >
> >
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 12:39:36 -0400
> From: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>
> Subject: NPPF: CANTO ONE NOTES
>
> [continuing on behalf of Charles -jf]
>
> Shall we call this the slightly more nuanced reading?
>
> As has been suggested of the Foreword, Canto One introduces, and develops
> narrative elements, but also delves more deeply into the symbolic themes
and
> structural clues which intend to both illuminate and obscure the path
ahead.
> The symbolic themes of man vs. nature, longing, the prodigal, and
> resurrection are introduced. Color keys are offered - the red AND grey of
> the waxwing, echoing the red associated with the Zemblan throne as well as
> the grey of Shade and Gradus (ashen). There is the obvious seasonal cycle,
> which is re-enforced (after the opening couplets) by the shift from mono-
> to multi-chromatic color schemes and back again. We are offered patterns
in
> shapes, circles- and their more convoluted cousins, torques, vermiculates,
> paperclips, the prone eight of "infinity"and lemniscates. We also get the
> recurring "V"s, waxwing, the "wings" of "foretime" and "aftertime". The
> "author/reader" relationship is certainly hinted at, explicitly, by way of
> the aforementioned debate on illusion, but also implicitly by the use of
> ambiguous, often "circular" clues, the distortion of the "senses", and the
> employment of paradox.
>
> What opens as an orthodox elegiac piece, deftly skirts "mawkishness" by
> turning from the poignant opening image to the disputation on the nature
of
> illusion. The doubt about "narrator" is enhanced by his/her identification
> with both the shadow of the waxwing, as well as the "illusionist"
> manipulating the images described with the glass. The palpably real on
> either side of the pane is juxtaposed in such a way as to defy reason
while
> satisfying the eye "chair and bed exactly stand/upon that snow".......
>
> The next verse confirms the circular ( and "re-incarnative") theme with
> "REtake the falling snow", and offers the paradoxical contrast of white on
> white " a dull dark white against the day's pale white". There is a
distinct
> echo of the pale fire of Timon of Athens and (this is where I will expose
> myself to potential ridicule), G. K. Chesterton and his The Man Who Would
Be
> Thursday. Take this, from page 48 "The moon was so strong and full, that
(by
> a paradox often to be noticed) it seemed like a weaker sun. It gave, not
the
> sense of bright moonshine, but rather, of a dead daylight."
>
> Chesterton's novel is subtitled "A Nightmare", but is presented in a
> straight narrative format, with the dreaming protagonist uncertain, even
> upon waking at the end of the novel, whether or not it has all been real.
> The story, richly allegorical, begins as a dispute between an anarchist
and
> "conservative", which resolves itself in a bet with twisted repercussions.
> The simple version is that the conservative winds up on THE "anarchists'"
> committee (named for the days of the week, his slot is "Thursday"), after
> having been recruited by an "off the book" division of Scotland Yard
> concerned with the maintenance of order and tradition. The "committee" has
> planned an assassination in France, and the first deputy of the chief has
> been sent ahead for preparations. The conservative determines to foil the
> plan, and one by one goes through the other committee members only to
> discover that they too are all double agents employed by the "Yard". They
> join forces to go after the deputy, and after a smashing sword fight, in
> which our hero literally hacks pieces off the "body" of the deputy (all
> disguise, natch), it is found that he is with the forces of good as well.
A
> spectacular chase, involving carriages and hot air balloons, ensues; the
> head anarchist is finally sufficiently proximate, before disappearing, to
> confirm that he is, in fact, the mysterious man who assigned our hero his
> task at Scotland Yard.
>
> But beyond the obvious parallel concerns with identities, N and C, both
> employ paradox to establish an essentially "manichean" faces of any
> particular object or phenomenon. But Nabokov's use is slightly different,
I
> believe. Jbor has commented that Nabokov likely "failed" in this effort to
> harness "ambiguity" in his service, and I am not qualified to take on that
> argument on Jbor's terms. I will suggest that the example of the use of
> paradox MAY be a hint at a greater "strategy". Given the undeniable
> authorial imprint on any effort, and the "narrow genesis" of its
> development, it is hard to fathom how one might incorporate the ambiguity,
> the unpredictability, of "real life", into a work of art. I propose that
> Nabokov employs devices like "doubtful directions", outright illusion, and
> paradoxes to simulate such a "fuzziness". I am reminded of the "anime
> verite" technique of "Squigglevision", as employed in the series Dr.
> Katz(WARNING PLUG! - and brilliantly incorporated into the movie
> State&Main). By means of a "flickering" of color and lines, the animators
> achieve an "acceptable" level of realism to the physical "dimension' of
the
> characters. A similar "flickering" aura surrounds the elements and clues
of
> PF.
>
> Paradoxes often posit a counterintuitive property of a object or process,
> and in PF, objects and processes are interlaced, torqued, if you will, in
a
> relational manic minuet, intended to both delight and frustrate....
>
> ------------------------------
>
> __________________________________
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 09:59:10 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Malignd <malignd@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE (misc note)
>
> <<Line 79: "A preterist, one who collects cold
> nests."
>
> preterist
> \Pret"er*ist\, n. [Pref. preter- + -ist.] 1. One whose
> chief interest is in thepast; one who regards the past
> with most pleasure or favor.
>
> 2. (Theol.) One who believes the prophecies of the
> Apocalypse to have been already fulfilled.
> preter-
> \Pre"ter-\ [L. praeter past, beyond, originally a
> compar. of prae
> before. See
> For, prep.] A prefix signifying past, by, beyond, more
> than; as,
> preter-
> mission, a permitting to go by; preternatural, beyond
> or more than is
> natural.
> [Written also pr[ae]ter.]
>
> Note the similar-sounding word ⌠pederast,■ which is
> used later in the book:
>
> Main Entry: ped╥er╥ast
> Pronunciation: 'pe-d&-"rast
> Function: noun
> Etymology: Greek paiderastEs, literally, lover of
> boys, from paid- ped-
> +
> erastEs lover, from erasthai to love -- more at EROS>>
>
> Also, TP's use of the similar term "preterite," used
> (as I recall) by him to describe the passed over, the
> opposite of the elect in a Calvinist theology.
>
>
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
> http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 10:42:14 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE: Synopsis
>
> > A literal synopsis
> > Not required.........
>
> But a good idea...
>
> > The poem opens with the waxwing hitting the windowpane
>
> No, the phase is past tense thus not an "event" per se, which makes the
comment
> below possible, but I have other ideas. It's is not necesarily a
rememberance,
> but more an analogy re. himself.
>
> <(some suggest that the waxwing in question has been picked up by the boy
> Shade)
>
> Kinbote's suggestion of young Shades "experiencing his first
eschatalogical
> shock." But since his parent's are presumably long dead, the lad would
have
> some idea of the concept of death.
>
> David Morris
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 13:50:22 -0400
> From: "cfalbert" <calbert@hslboxmaster.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE: Synopsis
>
> - ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Morris" <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> To: "Jasper Fidget" <jasper@hatguild.org>; <pynchon-l@waste.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 1:42 PM
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE: Synopsis
>
>
> >
> > > A literal synopsis
> > > Not required.........
> >
> > But a good idea...
> >
> > > The poem opens with the waxwing hitting the windowpane
> >
> > No, the phase is past tense thus not an "event" per se, which makes the
> comment
> > below possible, but I have other ideas. It's is not necesarily a
> rememberance,
> > but more an analogy re. himself.
>
> The list of potential analogues is enormous........Shade qualifies, as
(per
> MalignD) does Hazel. But so do Kinbote, potentially Botkin, as well as
"the
> reader".....
>
> The pane can represent numerous alternatives as well...
>
> It is, as I once suggested, a remarkably fecund metaphor....
>
> love,
> cfa
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 11:13:37 -0700 (PDT)
> From: David Morris <fqmorris@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: NPPF: CANTO ONE NOTES on behalf of Charles
>
>
> > Shade contrasts himself with the "vulgarian" who only sees the stars
when
> micturating.
>
> You saw the reference too (it is very obvious). It's really funny that he
> should call our heros of Ulysses "vulgarians."
>
> - ----------
>
> Were they indefinitely inactive?
>
> At Stephen's suggestion, at Bloom's instigation both, first Stephen, then
> Bloom, in penumbra urinated, their sides contiguous, their organs of
> micturition reciprocally rendered invisible by manual circumposition,
their
> gazes, first Bloom's, then Stephen's, elevated to the projected luminous
and
> semiluminous shadow.
>
> - ------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
>
> Similarly?
>
> The trajectories of their, first sequent, then simultaneous, urinations
were
> dissimilar: Bloom's longer, less irruent, in the incomplete form of the
> bifurcated penultimate alphabetical letter who in his ultimate year at
High
> School (1880) had been capable of attaining the point of greatest altitude
> against the whole concurrent strength of the institution, 210 scholars:
> Stephen's higher, more sibilant, who in the ultimate hours of the previous
day
> had augmented by diuretic consumption an insistent vesical pressure.
>
> - ------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
>
> What different problems presented themselves to each concerning the
invisible
> audible collateral organ of the other?
>
> To Bloom: the problems of irritability, tumescence, rigidity, reactivity,
> dimension, sanitariness, pelosity. To Stephen: the problem of the
sacerdotal
> integrity of Jesus circumcised (1st January, holiday of obligation to hear
mass
> and abstain from unnecessary servile work) and the problem as to whether
the
> divine prepuce, the carnal bridal ring of the holy Roman catholic
apostolic
> church, conserved in Calcata, were deserving of simple hyperduly or of the
> fourth degree of latria accorded to the abscission of such divine
excrescences
> as hair and toenails.
>
> - ------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
>
> What celestial sign was by both simultaneously observed?
>
> A star precipitated with great apparent velocity across the firmament from
Vega
> in the Lyre above the zenith beyond the stargroup of the Tress of Berenice
> towards the zodiacal sign of Leo.
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3434
> ********************************
>