Difference between revisions of "Chapter 11"
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321/354 - '''elephants'''<br /> | 321/354 - '''elephants'''<br /> | ||
There are no elephants on Malta, though there are fossilized remains of dwarf elephants at Ghar Dalam, near Birzebbuga. These remains prove that during the Pleistocene period the island was still connected to Sicily but cut off from North Africa. Apparently the animals got "trapped" on the island as they retreated towards warmer regions. | There are no elephants on Malta, though there are fossilized remains of dwarf elephants at Ghar Dalam, near Birzebbuga. These remains prove that during the Pleistocene period the island was still connected to Sicily but cut off from North Africa. Apparently the animals got "trapped" on the island as they retreated towards warmer regions. | ||
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| + | 322/355 - '''v.'''<br /> | ||
| + | After a discussion of the human zygote as matter without soul, shaped by the same mechanical forces that "dictate a bomb's trajectory, the death of stars, the wind and the water spout" we move to Fausto's "understanding" with God which comes down to, simply, "human law v. divine." In context "human law" seems to be a function of, among others, poets in creating metaphors and mothers in perpetrating a fictional mystery about motherhood -- see the "Great Lie" below (p.360). By contrast, the "divine" may simply be the laws of mechanical motion. | ||
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| + | The "v." between human law and the divine -- the crux/cross of being animate in an inanimate world is yet another interpretation of the title. | ||
324/358 - '''the first bomb of 8 June 1940'''<br /> | 324/358 - '''the first bomb of 8 June 1940'''<br /> | ||
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:Henry Adams, three generations before his own, had stared aghast at Power; Callisto found himself now in much the same state over Thermodynamics, the inner life of that power, realizing like his predecessor that the Virgin and the dynamo stand as much for love as for power; that the two are indeed identical; and that love therefore not only makes the world go round but also makes the boccie ball spin, the nebula precess. <ref>Pynchon, Thomas, ''Slow Learner'', Jonathan Cape, 1985, pp.84-85</ref> | :Henry Adams, three generations before his own, had stared aghast at Power; Callisto found himself now in much the same state over Thermodynamics, the inner life of that power, realizing like his predecessor that the Virgin and the dynamo stand as much for love as for power; that the two are indeed identical; and that love therefore not only makes the world go round but also makes the boccie ball spin, the nebula precess. <ref>Pynchon, Thomas, ''Slow Learner'', Jonathan Cape, 1985, pp.84-85</ref> | ||
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| + | 327/361-2 '''The sun had almost achieved reality.'''<br/> | ||
| + | This line strikes to the core of the animate v. inanimate discussion. Of course the sun is inanimate, though very energetic! -- so in order to almost achieve reality implies the perception of the poet bringing the sun to a subjective-animate reality. "Shades" of Wallace Stevens, Proust, William Blake, here. | ||
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| + | For example William Blake in 'A Vision of the Last Judgment' writes: <br> | ||
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| + | :''I assert for My Self that I do not behold the outward Creation & that to me it is a hindrance & not Action; it is as the Dirt upon my feet, No part of Me. "What," it will be Questiond, "When the Sun rises do you not see a round disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea?" O no, no, I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty." I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight: I look thro it & not with it.'' | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 13:44, 26 October 2007
- Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.
307/337 - rhythms pulse regular and sinusoidal
A sinusoidal waves's path, when plotted to a time base, is a sine wave (particles execute transverse vibrations of a simple harmonic type); Wikipedia
This date is incorrect. The bombing of Malta began on June 11, 1940. History of Malta
Malta is the trade crossroads where Milo Minderbinder operates from in Heller's Catch-22. "Malta, one, pure and a motley of races at once"-Fausto 2, p. 310/341, V.. Sections of Catch-22, published in 1963 appeared in literary journals [as Catch-18] before V. was published.
321/354 - elephants
There are no elephants on Malta, though there are fossilized remains of dwarf elephants at Ghar Dalam, near Birzebbuga. These remains prove that during the Pleistocene period the island was still connected to Sicily but cut off from North Africa. Apparently the animals got "trapped" on the island as they retreated towards warmer regions.
322/355 - v.
After a discussion of the human zygote as matter without soul, shaped by the same mechanical forces that "dictate a bomb's trajectory, the death of stars, the wind and the water spout" we move to Fausto's "understanding" with God which comes down to, simply, "human law v. divine." In context "human law" seems to be a function of, among others, poets in creating metaphors and mothers in perpetrating a fictional mystery about motherhood -- see the "Great Lie" below (p.360). By contrast, the "divine" may simply be the laws of mechanical motion.
The "v." between human law and the divine -- the crux/cross of being animate in an inanimate world is yet another interpretation of the title.
324/358 - the first bomb of 8 June 1940
This date is incorrect. See above...
A "step function" is a single real variable that remains constant within each of a series of adjacent intervals, but changes in value from one interval to the next. Wikipedia
A step function is a special type of function whose graph is a series of line segments.The graph of a step function looks like a series of small steps.http://www.icoachmath.com/SiteMap/StepFunction.html
From Pynchon's short story Entropy:
- Henry Adams, three generations before his own, had stared aghast at Power; Callisto found himself now in much the same state over Thermodynamics, the inner life of that power, realizing like his predecessor that the Virgin and the dynamo stand as much for love as for power; that the two are indeed identical; and that love therefore not only makes the world go round but also makes the boccie ball spin, the nebula precess. [1]
327/361-2 The sun had almost achieved reality.
This line strikes to the core of the animate v. inanimate discussion. Of course the sun is inanimate, though very energetic! -- so in order to almost achieve reality implies the perception of the poet bringing the sun to a subjective-animate reality. "Shades" of Wallace Stevens, Proust, William Blake, here.
For example William Blake in 'A Vision of the Last Judgment' writes:
- I assert for My Self that I do not behold the outward Creation & that to me it is a hindrance & not Action; it is as the Dirt upon my feet, No part of Me. "What," it will be Questiond, "When the Sun rises do you not see a round disk of fire somewhat like a Guinea?" O no, no, I see an Innumerable company of the Heavenly host crying "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty." I question not my Corporeal or Vegetative Eye any more than I would Question a Window concerning a Sight: I look thro it & not with it.
References
- ↑ Pynchon, Thomas, Slow Learner, Jonathan Cape, 1985, pp.84-85
| Chapter 1 In which Benny Profane, a schlemihl and human yo-yo, gets to an apocheir 9/1 |
Chapter 2 The Whole Sick Crew 44/39 |
Chapter 3 In which Stencil, a quick-change artist, does eight impersonations 61/59 |
Chapter 4 In which Esther gets a nose job 95/97 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chapter 5 In which Stencil nearly goes West with an alligator 111/115 |
Chapter 6 In which Profane returns to street level 134/141 |
Chapter 7 She hangs on the western wall 152/161 |
Chapter 8 In which Rachel gets her yo-yo back, Roony sings a song, and Stencil calls on Bloody Chiclitz 213/229 |
| Chapter 9 Mondaugen's story 229/247 |
Chapter 10 In which various sets of young people get together 280/305 |
Chapter 11 Confessions of Fausto Maijstral 304/333 |
Chapter 12 In which things are not so amusing 347/385 |
| Chapter 13 In which the yo-yo string is revealed as a state of mind 367/407 |
Chapter 14 V. in love 393/437 |
Chapter 15 Sahha 415/461 |
Chapter 16 Valletta 424/471 |
| Epilogue, 1919 456/507 |
