----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2004 5:11 PM
Subject: Fw: lunette/meniscus in TT
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John and List,
Following the "lunette" and its various
meanings referring to:
the crescent cut for holding the neck at
the guillotine;
crescent moon; meniscus; little moon;
arcade with an opening for ventilation and
light;
architectural projection;
"lunotto", the rear window
of a car or carriage, which may have a moonlike shape or serve for
admiring the moon;
etc...
we find, after the initial chapter in TT where " the future is but a
figure of speech, a specter ot thought" ( even at
an imminent beheading secured by a lunette ), a slow and
discreet emergence of the crescent moon in various "figures of speech"
culminating with our Baron R´s " tralatitions".
A subtle variation of "lunette" appears on Ch.5: " He strolled
aimlessly, keeping in the shelter of various ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTIONS ( one of
the meanings of "lunette") for it was in vain the the daily paper of that
rainy town kept clamoring for ARCADES to be built in its shopping
district "
( on Ch 4, Hugh was sharing a room with
his father in a "halfhearted alcove, separated by an ARCHWAY and a clothes tree"
which, more or less, also suggests the crescent shape but not
as clearly as what follows later ) .
At the closing of Ch 6 we find a frightened Hugh
close to the dead body of his father when he opens "wide both casements;
they gave on a parking place four floors below; the thin MENISCUS overhead was
too wan to illumine the roofs of the houses descending towar the invisible
lake".
Then, of ch.9 Hugh meets pretty Armande
who has " two dimples of the CRESCENTIC type" and that "came down her
tanned cheeks on the sides of her mournful mouth".
The "lunette" is now firmly connected to Armande
herself! and I stopped at Ch.9. I wonder what lies in the next
chapters!
( the hunting goddess Diana is
also depicted with a crescent as a crest on her
head)
...................................................................................................
There is also the affair of ch9, with the
play with "opposite" images from "crescent moon" to "setting
sun".
It starts with "Would he mind pulling that dark
blind down a little? THE LOW SUN´S FUNERAL"
and proceeds to " Ask me what I can
do, not what I do, lovely girl, lovely WAKE OF THE SUN" ( ...)
And, after that:
" I can commit to memory a whole
page...I have never published one scrap of verse except some juvenile nonsense
at college" ..
And what was the
juvenile nonsense? It appears at the begining of Ch8: " Blest are suspension
dots...THE SUN WAS SETTING A HEAVENLY EXAMPLE TO THE LAKE' .
( wonderful: Funeral - Wake - Sunset and set an
example - ( Lake )
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Has it been brought up at the list that
the hotel "FANTASTIC in Blur" that is actually the "MAJESTIC in
Chur", soon gains expression in Hugh´s appearance: " had not his
melancholy stoop belied every inch of his FANTASTIC MAJESTY'
?
...............................................................................................
Best to all,
Jansy