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Fw: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3481 PALE FIRE Canto 4
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From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 2:54 PM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3481
>
> pynchon-l-digest Monday, August 11 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3481
>
> Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 12:33:05 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: [NPPF] Canto Four: Versipellis
>
> Leningradus should not aim his peashooter at people even in dreams,
because
> if he does, a pair of colossally thick, abnormally hairy arms will hug him
> from behind and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.
>
> "Gradus, he Shaderunner."
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 12:39:08 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: [NPPF] Canto Four: Versipellis
>
> I was brought up by dear bizarre Aunt Maud,
> A poet and a painter with a taste
> For realistic objects interlaced
> With grotesque growths and images of doom.
> She lived to hear the next babe cry.
>
> Such, according to the unanimous testimony of historians, was the
celebrated
> "Berserker rage," not peculiar to the Northland, although there most
> conspicuously manifested. Taking now a step in advance, we find that in
> comparatively civilized countries there have been many cases of monstrous
> homicidal insanity. The two most celebrated cases, among those collected
by
> Mr. Baring-Gould, are those of the MarИchal de Retz, in 1440, and of
> Elizabeth, a Hungarian countess, in the seventeenth century. The Countess
> Elizabeth enticed young girls into her palace on divers pretexts, and then
> coolly murdered them, for the purpose of bathing in their blood. The
> spectacle of human suffering became at last such a delight to her, that
she
> would apply with her own hands the most excruciating tortures, relishing
the
> shrieks of her victims as the epicure relishes each sip of his old ChАteau
> Margaux.
>
> [...]
>
> But the case of the MarИchal de Retz is still more frightful. A marshal of
> France, a scholarly man, a patriot, and a man of holy life, he became
> suddenly possessed by an uncontrollable desire to murder children. During
> seven years he continued to inveigle little boys and girls into his castle
> at the rate of about two each week, (?) and then put them to death in
> various ways, that he might witness their agonies and bathe in their
blood;
> experiencing after each occasion the most dreadful remorse, but led on by
an
> irresistible craving to repeat the crime. When this unparalleled iniquity
> was finally brought to light, the castle was found to contain bins full of
> children's bones. The horrible details of the trial are to be found in the
> histories of France by Michelet and Martin.
>
> --also from "Werewolves and Swan-maidens" by John Fiske
> http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/1871aug/fiskej.htm
>
work here in the past.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 14:30:27 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: [NPPF] Canto Four: Versipellis
>
> My best time is morning; my preferred
> Season, midsummer. I once overheard
> Myself awakening while half of me
> Still slept in bed. I tore my spirit free,
> And caught up with myself--upon the lawn
> Where clover leaves cupped the topaz of dawn,
> And where Shade stood in nightshirt and one shoe.
> And then I realized that THIS half too
> Was fast asleep; both laughed and I awoke
> Safe in my bed as day its eggshell broke,
> And robins walked and stopped, and on the damp
> Gemmed turf a vrown shoe lay! My secret stamp,
> The Shade impress, the mystery inborn.
> Mirages, miracles, midsmmer morn. (Lines 873-886)
>
> "Thus we not only see a ray of light thrown on the subject of
> metempsychosis, but we get a glimpse of the curious process by which the
> intensely realistic mind of antiquity arrived at the notion that men could
> be transformed into beasts. For the belief that the soul can temporarily
> quit the body during lifetime has been universally entertained; and from
the
> conception of wolf-like ghosts it was but a short step to the conception
of
> corporeal werewolves. In the Middle Ages the phenomena of trance and
> catalepsy were cited in proof of the theory that the soul can leave the
body
> and afterwards return to it. Hence it was very difficult for a person
> accused of witchcraft to prove an alibi, for to any amount of evidence
> showing that the body was innocently reposing at home and in bed, the
> rejoinder was obvious that the soul may nevertheless have been in
attendance
> at the witches' Sabbath or busied in maiming a neighbor's cattle.
According
> to one medieval notion, the soul of the werewolf quit its human body,
which
> remained in a trance until its return."
>
> --also from "Werewolves and Swan-maidens" by John Fiske
> http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/1871aug/fiskej.htm
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 14:44:27 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: [NPPF] Canto Four: Versipellis
>
> And there's the wall of sound: the nightly wall
> Raised by a trillion crickets in the fall.
> Impenetrable! Halfway up the hill
> I'd pause in thrall of their delirious trill.
> That's Dr. Sutton's light. That's the Great Bear.
>
> "It was in this way that the constellation of the Great Bear received its
> name. The Greek work arktos, answering to the Sanskrit riksha, meant
> originally any bright object, and was applied to the bear-for what reason
it
> would not be easy to state-and to that constellation which was most
> conspicuous in the latitude of the early home of the Aryans. When the
Greeks
> had long forgotten why these stars were called arktoi, they symbolized
them
> as a Great Bear fixed in the sky. So that, as Max MЭller observes, "the
name
> of the Arctic regions rests on a misunderstanding of a name framed
thousands
> of years ago in Central Asia, and the surprise with which many a
thoughtful
> observer has looked at these seven bright stars, wondering why they were
> ever called the Bear, is removed by a reference to the early annals of
human
> speech.""
>
>
> --also from "Werewolves and Swan-maidens" by John Fiske
> http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/1871aug/fiskej.htm
>
> Now I understand what Shade was doing stumbling around the hill at night,
> and why a regular vulgarian was happier just taking a piss and watching
the
> Milky Way. It's no fun being a versipel.
>
> The regular vulgarian, I daresay,
> Is happier: he sees the Milky Way
> Only when making water. Then as now
> I walked at my own risk: whipped by the bough,
> Tripped by the stump. Asthmatic, lame and fat,
> I never bounced a ball or swung a bat.
>
> Even hidden in the literary allusions are the image of Shade as hound:
>
> Kinbote: You appreciate particularly the purple passages?
> Shade: Yes, my dear Charles, I roll upon them as a grateful mongrel on a
> spot of turf fouled by a Great Dane.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3481
> ********************************
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message to waste@waste.org
> with "unsubscribe pynchon-l-digest" in the message body.
From: "pynchon-l-digest" <owner-pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
To: <pynchon-l-digest@waste.org>
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 2:54 PM
Subject: pynchon-l-digest V2 #3481
>
> pynchon-l-digest Monday, August 11 2003 Volume 02 : Number
3481
>
> Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 12:33:05 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: [NPPF] Canto Four: Versipellis
>
> Leningradus should not aim his peashooter at people even in dreams,
because
> if he does, a pair of colossally thick, abnormally hairy arms will hug him
> from behind and squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.
>
> "Gradus, he Shaderunner."
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 12:39:08 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: [NPPF] Canto Four: Versipellis
>
> I was brought up by dear bizarre Aunt Maud,
> A poet and a painter with a taste
> For realistic objects interlaced
> With grotesque growths and images of doom.
> She lived to hear the next babe cry.
>
> Such, according to the unanimous testimony of historians, was the
celebrated
> "Berserker rage," not peculiar to the Northland, although there most
> conspicuously manifested. Taking now a step in advance, we find that in
> comparatively civilized countries there have been many cases of monstrous
> homicidal insanity. The two most celebrated cases, among those collected
by
> Mr. Baring-Gould, are those of the MarИchal de Retz, in 1440, and of
> Elizabeth, a Hungarian countess, in the seventeenth century. The Countess
> Elizabeth enticed young girls into her palace on divers pretexts, and then
> coolly murdered them, for the purpose of bathing in their blood. The
> spectacle of human suffering became at last such a delight to her, that
she
> would apply with her own hands the most excruciating tortures, relishing
the
> shrieks of her victims as the epicure relishes each sip of his old ChАteau
> Margaux.
>
> [...]
>
> But the case of the MarИchal de Retz is still more frightful. A marshal of
> France, a scholarly man, a patriot, and a man of holy life, he became
> suddenly possessed by an uncontrollable desire to murder children. During
> seven years he continued to inveigle little boys and girls into his castle
> at the rate of about two each week, (?) and then put them to death in
> various ways, that he might witness their agonies and bathe in their
blood;
> experiencing after each occasion the most dreadful remorse, but led on by
an
> irresistible craving to repeat the crime. When this unparalleled iniquity
> was finally brought to light, the castle was found to contain bins full of
> children's bones. The horrible details of the trial are to be found in the
> histories of France by Michelet and Martin.
>
> --also from "Werewolves and Swan-maidens" by John Fiske
> http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/1871aug/fiskej.htm
>
work here in the past.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 14:30:27 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: [NPPF] Canto Four: Versipellis
>
> My best time is morning; my preferred
> Season, midsummer. I once overheard
> Myself awakening while half of me
> Still slept in bed. I tore my spirit free,
> And caught up with myself--upon the lawn
> Where clover leaves cupped the topaz of dawn,
> And where Shade stood in nightshirt and one shoe.
> And then I realized that THIS half too
> Was fast asleep; both laughed and I awoke
> Safe in my bed as day its eggshell broke,
> And robins walked and stopped, and on the damp
> Gemmed turf a vrown shoe lay! My secret stamp,
> The Shade impress, the mystery inborn.
> Mirages, miracles, midsmmer morn. (Lines 873-886)
>
> "Thus we not only see a ray of light thrown on the subject of
> metempsychosis, but we get a glimpse of the curious process by which the
> intensely realistic mind of antiquity arrived at the notion that men could
> be transformed into beasts. For the belief that the soul can temporarily
> quit the body during lifetime has been universally entertained; and from
the
> conception of wolf-like ghosts it was but a short step to the conception
of
> corporeal werewolves. In the Middle Ages the phenomena of trance and
> catalepsy were cited in proof of the theory that the soul can leave the
body
> and afterwards return to it. Hence it was very difficult for a person
> accused of witchcraft to prove an alibi, for to any amount of evidence
> showing that the body was innocently reposing at home and in bed, the
> rejoinder was obvious that the soul may nevertheless have been in
attendance
> at the witches' Sabbath or busied in maiming a neighbor's cattle.
According
> to one medieval notion, the soul of the werewolf quit its human body,
which
> remained in a trance until its return."
>
> --also from "Werewolves and Swan-maidens" by John Fiske
> http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/1871aug/fiskej.htm
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 14:44:27 -0700
> From: "s~Z" <keithsz@concentric.net>
> Subject: Re: [NPPF] Canto Four: Versipellis
>
> And there's the wall of sound: the nightly wall
> Raised by a trillion crickets in the fall.
> Impenetrable! Halfway up the hill
> I'd pause in thrall of their delirious trill.
> That's Dr. Sutton's light. That's the Great Bear.
>
> "It was in this way that the constellation of the Great Bear received its
> name. The Greek work arktos, answering to the Sanskrit riksha, meant
> originally any bright object, and was applied to the bear-for what reason
it
> would not be easy to state-and to that constellation which was most
> conspicuous in the latitude of the early home of the Aryans. When the
Greeks
> had long forgotten why these stars were called arktoi, they symbolized
them
> as a Great Bear fixed in the sky. So that, as Max MЭller observes, "the
name
> of the Arctic regions rests on a misunderstanding of a name framed
thousands
> of years ago in Central Asia, and the surprise with which many a
thoughtful
> observer has looked at these seven bright stars, wondering why they were
> ever called the Bear, is removed by a reference to the early annals of
human
> speech.""
>
>
> --also from "Werewolves and Swan-maidens" by John Fiske
> http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/1871aug/fiskej.htm
>
> Now I understand what Shade was doing stumbling around the hill at night,
> and why a regular vulgarian was happier just taking a piss and watching
the
> Milky Way. It's no fun being a versipel.
>
> The regular vulgarian, I daresay,
> Is happier: he sees the Milky Way
> Only when making water. Then as now
> I walked at my own risk: whipped by the bough,
> Tripped by the stump. Asthmatic, lame and fat,
> I never bounced a ball or swung a bat.
>
> Even hidden in the literary allusions are the image of Shade as hound:
>
> Kinbote: You appreciate particularly the purple passages?
> Shade: Yes, my dear Charles, I roll upon them as a grateful mongrel on a
> spot of turf fouled by a Great Dane.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of pynchon-l-digest V2 #3481
> ********************************
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message to waste@waste.org
> with "unsubscribe pynchon-l-digest" in the message body.