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pynchon-l-digest V2 #3617 (fwd)
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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 2:00 AM -0500
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 06:23:30 -0400
From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
Subject: RE: NPPF: Commentary 1 (summary and notes) Lines 376-377, 384,
385-386,
> From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> Behalf Of bekah
>
> An enigmatic line ends the little section,
> "Southey liked a roasted rat for supper - which
> is especially comic in view of the rats that
> devoured his Bishop." This is apparently a double
> slam; he's referring to Paul H. eating crow and
> that he has been outmatched in the metaphoric
> chess game Kinbote thematically conjures up to
> keep the poem.
>
See Robert Southey's poem "God's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop," wherein said
Bishop burns a barn full of poor people in order to rid it "in these times
forlorn / Of Rats that only consume the corn." Later an Army of Rats show
up to great comic effect:
They have whetted their teeth against the stones,
And now they pick the Bishop's bones:
They gnaw'd the flesh from every limb,
For they were sent to do judgment on him!
http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem1956.html
> ****************
>
> Lines 385-386 "Jane Dean, Pete Dean"
>
p. 196
"a glorious young athlete whose 'garland' will not, one hopes, be 'briefer
than a girl's'."
From A.E. Houseman's "To An Athlete Dying Young" (1896)
And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.
http://staff.bcc.edu/jalexand/Houseman--To_%20An_%20Athlete.htm
Jasper Fidget
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 07:04:10 -0400
From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
Subject: RE: NPPF: Commentary 5 (notes) Lines 433-434
> From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> Behalf Of bekah
>
> *********************
> page 204
>
> It's near Cap Turc and Villa Paradisa. (renamed for Disa.)
>
Villa Paradiso -> Villa Paradisa: another Zemblan gender switch.
> ** Disa, Duchess of Payn. Payn is incredible Pain, so Disa is the Duchess
> of Pain. She is truly a very unhappy woman. Exiled to the Villa by her
> husband. (line130)
>
p. 206
"the tall, sheared and bearded visitor with the bouquet of
flowers-of-the-gods who had been watching her from afar advanced through the
garlands of shade"
A parallel of the scene where K approaches Shade while he's writing "Pale
Fire." Also recalls the Houseman poem referenced on p. 196, linking Shade
to the Athlete who died too soon.
Jasper Fidget
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 07:05:34 -0400
From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
Subject: RE: NPPF: Commentary 5 (notes) Lines 433-434
> From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> Behalf Of bekah
>
> ** Disa, Duchess of Payn. Payn is incredible Pain, so Disa is the Duchess
> of Pain. She is truly a very unhappy woman. Exiled to the Villa by her
> husband. (line130)
>
> Disa is a girl's name which means twice or double in Greek. But in Norse
> it means spirited. I'll go with the Greek for Nabakov although she did
> seem to be both.
>
PF has lots of references to Norse etymologies, so I wouldn't be surprised
if VN had both in mind. For "Dis," there's also:
(Greek) The shining one; an older form of Zeus.
(Icelandic) Sister; in Norse myths an attendant spirit or constant
companion. Possibly the astral double of a living entity for when one's dis
is absent, it presages death.
(Latin) [contraction of dives rich] Name for Pluto, god of the underworld.
The expression "rich" arises in the fact that the presiding deity of the
underworld gathers in through the rolling ages whatever is, thus implying a
constantly accumulating store of all things that once were, but now belong
to the past. There is a distinct mystical similarity between the Greek and
Latin Dis.
(Sanskrit) [from the verbal root dis to show, point out, direct] A direction
or point of space, a cardinal point or quarter; the four cardinal points:
prachi (east); dakshina (south); pratichi (west); and udichi (north). The
noun disa likewise means direction, region, quarter, or point of space.
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/etgloss/dis-dz.htm
OED has "dis" as a colloquial abbreviation for "disconnected," meaning
"Broken, not working; fig. weak in the head."
OED also sez of "dis-" the prefix:
"In words adopted from French and Latin with the sense 'apart, away,
asunder, abroad'
In words adopted from French and Latin with privative force, as
disadvantage, disagree, disease, disgrace, displease, dissuade, etc. Also as
a freely productive prefix with privative force (occas. replacing earlier
mis-, as in dislike) forming (a) verbs from verbs (with their derivative
nouns, adjectives, etc.) with the sense 'reverse, undo', as disestablish,
disown, etc.; (b) verbs from nouns with the senses 'strip of, free, rid of',
as disfrock, dispeople, etc., 'deprive of the character, title, etc. of', as
disbishop, dischurch, etc., 'expel from', as disbar, disbench, etc., 'undo,
spoil', as discomplexion; (c) verbs from adjectives with the sense 'undo,
reverse the quality denoted', as disable etc.; (d) nouns from nouns with the
sense 'the absence or opposite of the state, quality, etc., in question', as
in dishonour etc.; (e) adjectives from adjectives with negative force, as
dishonest etc.
In words adopted from French and Latin with intensive force 'utterly' with
words already implying reversal or removal, as disannul, disturb, etc., and
occas. in words formed in English after these, as disembowel, disgruntled,
etc."
And finally, of the multitude of words with dis- prefixes, this one stands
out in the context: "disattention -- noun -- lack of attention, neglect."
Jasper Fidget
-
------------------------------
D
------------------------------
End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3617
********************************
To unsubscribe, send a message to waste@waste.org
with "unsubscribe pynchon-l-digest" in the message body.
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 2:00 AM -0500
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 06:23:30 -0400
From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
Subject: RE: NPPF: Commentary 1 (summary and notes) Lines 376-377, 384,
385-386,
> From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> Behalf Of bekah
>
> An enigmatic line ends the little section,
> "Southey liked a roasted rat for supper - which
> is especially comic in view of the rats that
> devoured his Bishop." This is apparently a double
> slam; he's referring to Paul H. eating crow and
> that he has been outmatched in the metaphoric
> chess game Kinbote thematically conjures up to
> keep the poem.
>
See Robert Southey's poem "God's Judgment on a Wicked Bishop," wherein said
Bishop burns a barn full of poor people in order to rid it "in these times
forlorn / Of Rats that only consume the corn." Later an Army of Rats show
up to great comic effect:
They have whetted their teeth against the stones,
And now they pick the Bishop's bones:
They gnaw'd the flesh from every limb,
For they were sent to do judgment on him!
http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem1956.html
> ****************
>
> Lines 385-386 "Jane Dean, Pete Dean"
>
p. 196
"a glorious young athlete whose 'garland' will not, one hopes, be 'briefer
than a girl's'."
From A.E. Houseman's "To An Athlete Dying Young" (1896)
And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.
http://staff.bcc.edu/jalexand/Houseman--To_%20An_%20Athlete.htm
Jasper Fidget
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 07:04:10 -0400
From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
Subject: RE: NPPF: Commentary 5 (notes) Lines 433-434
> From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> Behalf Of bekah
>
> *********************
> page 204
>
> It's near Cap Turc and Villa Paradisa. (renamed for Disa.)
>
Villa Paradiso -> Villa Paradisa: another Zemblan gender switch.
> ** Disa, Duchess of Payn. Payn is incredible Pain, so Disa is the Duchess
> of Pain. She is truly a very unhappy woman. Exiled to the Villa by her
> husband. (line130)
>
p. 206
"the tall, sheared and bearded visitor with the bouquet of
flowers-of-the-gods who had been watching her from afar advanced through the
garlands of shade"
A parallel of the scene where K approaches Shade while he's writing "Pale
Fire." Also recalls the Houseman poem referenced on p. 196, linking Shade
to the Athlete who died too soon.
Jasper Fidget
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 07:05:34 -0400
From: "Jasper Fidget" <fakename@verizon.net>
Subject: RE: NPPF: Commentary 5 (notes) Lines 433-434
> From: owner-pynchon-l@waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l@waste.org] On
> Behalf Of bekah
>
> ** Disa, Duchess of Payn. Payn is incredible Pain, so Disa is the Duchess
> of Pain. She is truly a very unhappy woman. Exiled to the Villa by her
> husband. (line130)
>
> Disa is a girl's name which means twice or double in Greek. But in Norse
> it means spirited. I'll go with the Greek for Nabakov although she did
> seem to be both.
>
PF has lots of references to Norse etymologies, so I wouldn't be surprised
if VN had both in mind. For "Dis," there's also:
(Greek) The shining one; an older form of Zeus.
(Icelandic) Sister; in Norse myths an attendant spirit or constant
companion. Possibly the astral double of a living entity for when one's dis
is absent, it presages death.
(Latin) [contraction of dives rich] Name for Pluto, god of the underworld.
The expression "rich" arises in the fact that the presiding deity of the
underworld gathers in through the rolling ages whatever is, thus implying a
constantly accumulating store of all things that once were, but now belong
to the past. There is a distinct mystical similarity between the Greek and
Latin Dis.
(Sanskrit) [from the verbal root dis to show, point out, direct] A direction
or point of space, a cardinal point or quarter; the four cardinal points:
prachi (east); dakshina (south); pratichi (west); and udichi (north). The
noun disa likewise means direction, region, quarter, or point of space.
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/etgloss/dis-dz.htm
OED has "dis" as a colloquial abbreviation for "disconnected," meaning
"Broken, not working; fig. weak in the head."
OED also sez of "dis-" the prefix:
"In words adopted from French and Latin with the sense 'apart, away,
asunder, abroad'
In words adopted from French and Latin with privative force, as
disadvantage, disagree, disease, disgrace, displease, dissuade, etc. Also as
a freely productive prefix with privative force (occas. replacing earlier
mis-, as in dislike) forming (a) verbs from verbs (with their derivative
nouns, adjectives, etc.) with the sense 'reverse, undo', as disestablish,
disown, etc.; (b) verbs from nouns with the senses 'strip of, free, rid of',
as disfrock, dispeople, etc., 'deprive of the character, title, etc. of', as
disbishop, dischurch, etc., 'expel from', as disbar, disbench, etc., 'undo,
spoil', as discomplexion; (c) verbs from adjectives with the sense 'undo,
reverse the quality denoted', as disable etc.; (d) nouns from nouns with the
sense 'the absence or opposite of the state, quality, etc., in question', as
in dishonour etc.; (e) adjectives from adjectives with negative force, as
dishonest etc.
In words adopted from French and Latin with intensive force 'utterly' with
words already implying reversal or removal, as disannul, disturb, etc., and
occas. in words formed in English after these, as disembowel, disgruntled,
etc."
And finally, of the multitude of words with dis- prefixes, this one stands
out in the context: "disattention -- noun -- lack of attention, neglect."
Jasper Fidget
-
------------------------------
D
------------------------------
End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3617
********************************
To unsubscribe, send a message to waste@waste.org
with "unsubscribe pynchon-l-digest" in the message body.
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L