So the worst semester of grad school is finally over and I can return to this. I have been really trying as I finish the last 100 pages this month to really think thematically what might I draw out of this post-modern novel. It has definitely been a struggle along the way to piece the text together. But as I've been compiling a note book with my annotations and my book notes in one place to look for themes I have realized there is so much play with temporality in the text, that it is meant to be utterly dis concerning and very hard to pin point time, history, characters through the multiplicity of narratives. I think that this is done to really allow for a plurality of story lines, characters and ideas to flourish. There is so much play between type of text, i.e plays, poems, and prose, that I believe this also helps to play with this concept. I have really been enjoying the end of the text so far and I am slowly working towards actually writing what one might be able to consider an academic paper soon, but it is still slow going and a struggle.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Myth and Monsters
As I read the text, I am constantly struck by the parallels I see to Greek and Roman mythology especially through Pynchon's use of creatures and monsters within the text. I am rather embarrassed to admit this, but classics is by far the area of literature I lack the most prowess in and I will need to do a bit more re-reading and research before I can draw any distinct connections. I won't have time to read "The White Goddess" by Robert Graves until December, but I hope to read this book and see how it connects. The wonderful Jack told me that Pynchon was reading it when he wrote "Gravity's Rainbow." So I'll have to go for now, but I will definitely pick up this topic later.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
I'm Back and Hopeful
Sorry to my dear two subscribers who follow this blog, I have unfortunately been too long absent from posting. But graduate school, and my master's project on the acculturation of new immigrants and the development of citizenship in Title I schools has taken over my life. But much to my joy, I finally have a week off to continue my journey and writings about Gravity's Rainbow, and although I may have been absent all these months, Gravity's Rainbow has never left my heart or the back of my consciousness. New posts soon!
~ G
~ G
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Future Topics and Ideas for this Blog:
So I've been thinking a lot about where I want to take this blog and I would love to work in these Topics:
1. Plot Notes and Details
a. Summaries of episodes and sections
2. Language Play
a. structure
b. narrative
c. languages
d. songs
3. Cultural References
a. literature references
b. trans-marginal phenomena
c. BBC
d. Times (London)
e. Map of London/ Map of Europe
f. Astology
g. Advent calendar and history
h. Folklore
i. Mathematics/ Technology
4. Historical Notes and References:
a. WWII
b. Britian
c. Germany
d. America
e. Military History
f. Holocaust
g. Technological developments during the war
h. Rockets
i. Nazis
j. Pavlovian Psychology
5. Text Annotations
6. Themes and Threads:
a. Circular narratives and events
b. Secular
c. Science
d. Hysteron Proteron and Reversal
e. redemption
f. monsters
g. touch
1. Plot Notes and Details
a. Summaries of episodes and sections
2. Language Play
a. structure
b. narrative
c. languages
d. songs
3. Cultural References
a. literature references
b. trans-marginal phenomena
c. BBC
d. Times (London)
e. Map of London/ Map of Europe
f. Astology
g. Advent calendar and history
h. Folklore
i. Mathematics/ Technology
4. Historical Notes and References:
a. WWII
b. Britian
c. Germany
d. America
e. Military History
f. Holocaust
g. Technological developments during the war
h. Rockets
i. Nazis
j. Pavlovian Psychology
5. Text Annotations
6. Themes and Threads:
a. Circular narratives and events
b. Secular
c. Science
d. Hysteron Proteron and Reversal
e. redemption
f. monsters
g. touch
Book Scan:
Before reading the text I annotate each section's title page, please see below. I also annotate mid-read as well.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Summaries of Episodes in BTZ: Episodes 1-5
There are 21 episodes in Beyond the Zero and I am going to write a quick summary of the events of each episode, but for now summaries for episodes 1-5 are below:
Episode 1:
The novel begins with the sound of a rocket going through the sky and Pirate's dream. In this first episode we are introduced to some of the more prevalent characters including: Pirate and Bloat. We are also immediate aware that we reading about military men. There is a short funny vignette about a banana breakfast that still puzzles me as to it's purpose except for it's absurdity. The rockets and our European location are also introduced in this episode.
Episode 2:
This episode begins to pit England and Germany against each other and appears to take place in December of 1944. This immediately tells us as readers that we are in the time period of World War II. The military men begin to wake from a night of drinking as the scene unfolds. This is the episode which also first introduces to a few structural and writing conventions featured in the text including the inclusion of French, songs, colors, sounds, and a use of temporality that goes back and forth before the war and in the present day. We are taken back to a memory of Pirate's from 1935 with a Adenoid (a "lymphatic monster") (Pynchon, 2005, 15).
Episode 3:
This episode features a depiction of Teddy Bloat's lunch hour eating a banana sandwich and his obsession with Slothrop's star map. This is the first episode where we are introduced to the key character Slothrop. In this scene we learn that Slothrop's map of sexual conquests matches up exactly with the map that features where the rockets hit. We are also introduced to the character of Tantivy in this episode who at first is used as a foil for Slothrop.
Episode 4:
In this episode, we finally actually meet our key character Slothrop, who is notorious for his charismatic ways with women, and smoking. Slothrop works fr ACHTUNG looking at rocket bomb disasters much like the Blitz which occured in London during the war. It is explained to us that the color of the stars on the map depict how Slothrop feels that day and range from blue to gold. His memory of the women themselves seems to fade over time, but the color and the stars are ever present. Slothrop has a desire to have a rocket with his name painted on it, and seems somehow to be chasing death by chasing rocket disasters. There is a short vignette about Slothrop's relatives' tombstones and their inscriptions; all of which seem to be very tongue in cheek and make a comment or sneer about death itself.
Episode 5:
The fifth episode features Jessica and Roger who attend a seance together. This chapter points out another dichotomy of the secular and the spiritual in the text. We are also introduced to "The White Visitation" which is a house for the PISCES unit. The PISCES unit, yes named metaphorically after the astrological sign stands for: Psychological Intelligence Schemes for Expediting Surrender. We are also taken back to Pirate's youth when he fell in love with a young woman who married and the relationship's end. It is clear from this episode that Roger and Jessica's relationship is to unfold much like this relationship did for Pirate in 1936.
Episode 1:
The novel begins with the sound of a rocket going through the sky and Pirate's dream. In this first episode we are introduced to some of the more prevalent characters including: Pirate and Bloat. We are also immediate aware that we reading about military men. There is a short funny vignette about a banana breakfast that still puzzles me as to it's purpose except for it's absurdity. The rockets and our European location are also introduced in this episode.
Episode 2:
This episode begins to pit England and Germany against each other and appears to take place in December of 1944. This immediately tells us as readers that we are in the time period of World War II. The military men begin to wake from a night of drinking as the scene unfolds. This is the episode which also first introduces to a few structural and writing conventions featured in the text including the inclusion of French, songs, colors, sounds, and a use of temporality that goes back and forth before the war and in the present day. We are taken back to a memory of Pirate's from 1935 with a Adenoid (a "lymphatic monster") (Pynchon, 2005, 15).
Episode 3:
This episode features a depiction of Teddy Bloat's lunch hour eating a banana sandwich and his obsession with Slothrop's star map. This is the first episode where we are introduced to the key character Slothrop. In this scene we learn that Slothrop's map of sexual conquests matches up exactly with the map that features where the rockets hit. We are also introduced to the character of Tantivy in this episode who at first is used as a foil for Slothrop.
Episode 4:
In this episode, we finally actually meet our key character Slothrop, who is notorious for his charismatic ways with women, and smoking. Slothrop works fr ACHTUNG looking at rocket bomb disasters much like the Blitz which occured in London during the war. It is explained to us that the color of the stars on the map depict how Slothrop feels that day and range from blue to gold. His memory of the women themselves seems to fade over time, but the color and the stars are ever present. Slothrop has a desire to have a rocket with his name painted on it, and seems somehow to be chasing death by chasing rocket disasters. There is a short vignette about Slothrop's relatives' tombstones and their inscriptions; all of which seem to be very tongue in cheek and make a comment or sneer about death itself.
Episode 5:
The fifth episode features Jessica and Roger who attend a seance together. This chapter points out another dichotomy of the secular and the spiritual in the text. We are also introduced to "The White Visitation" which is a house for the PISCES unit. The PISCES unit, yes named metaphorically after the astrological sign stands for: Psychological Intelligence Schemes for Expediting Surrender. We are also taken back to Pirate's youth when he fell in love with a young woman who married and the relationship's end. It is clear from this episode that Roger and Jessica's relationship is to unfold much like this relationship did for Pirate in 1936.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Finally finished Beyond the Zero:
So I finally finished reading and re-reading "Beyond the Zero" and I can say that I was tempted to re-read it again before moving on. I read this part of the text three times, each time making notes an annotations about various parts of the text. I have to say at first this was really challenging and I really felt like I might never get anywhere with this text, but now I can say that RE-READING makes a HUGE difference. I have also been using "A Gravity's Rainbow Companion: Sources and Contexts for Pynchon's Novel" by Steven Weisenburger to annotate the text. This has also been a great help as well. I would like to write another summation of this part of the text in the next few days and will continue to work on it.
I am now proud to say I am 191 pages into Gravity's Rainbow and proud!
I am now proud to say I am 191 pages into Gravity's Rainbow and proud!
Book Condition
So I decided it might be a bit funny for my readers to see what the cover of my book ends up looking like through this process, I decorated it a little bit while on vacation and there is a tare already on the cover, oh dear I hope it lasts!
Monday, May 23, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
What does it mean to go 'beyond the zero'?
The first section of Gravity's Rainbow begins with an epigraph written by Wernher Von Braun (a German rocket scientist during the first half of the twentieth century) which reads: "Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death," (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 1). And with such a quote, we enter the complex, and transgressive World War II landscape that is Gravity's Rainbow. At first glance, it is hard to discern what is reality and what is a dreamlike or fantastic state, and yet as you push further into the text certain questions, concepts, and metaphors begin to plague you, the reader, and become almost so difficult and absolute that they are almost at first impermeable. At yet as you push further and further into the text, you are finally plagued by some kind of question. For me there has been one question that has taken over my reading of this text so far: What does it mean to go 'beyond the zero'? And yet to ask this question we must admit that we must first ask ourselves another question: What is the zero?
In all honesty, when I ask myself "What is the zero?" no matter how much I look, stare, and study the text itself, I do not know what exactly the zero is, and yet as much as I look, stare, and study the text itself, slowly I become more and more certain that the zero is many things. Literally, the "zero" of this text has its roots in mathematics. And while a the physical uttering of the word "zero" might immediately summon up memories of elementary mathematics, the numerical concept of 0, or even the definition of an additive integer; to a seasoned reader and student of literature on might jump to the metaphorical connotations of "zero" and skip the background scientific and mathematical history of "zero" all together. This I am convinced would be a mistake, and was my own error of reading the text until I re-examined page 142 where the character Roger Mexico is analyzing an power series logarithm. Analysis and research of this logarithm eventually led me to the discovery what is literally happening to Tyrone Slothrop in our text: a reversal of stimuli through the implementation of psycho physics. Psycho physics is a science that uses the logarithms described in the text, and is a practice of discerning an individuals threshold "zero" through an analysis of the sensations created by various stimuli. In order to find this threshold, the subject is subjected to stimuli at such a low level that they can't discern the stimuli at all and therefore there is no sensation or reaction. This stimuli is slowly increased in its intensity and then reversed so that the individual's threshold and "zero" is detected. In the most literal and scientific sense of this text, this is what we can first call our "zero", the threshold level of stimuli's effect to cause a result; and yet when we read this text we being to get a sense that the "zero" must be something bigger than just this scientific concept. And that this "zero" must be a metaphor for something else within the context of the novel and the landscape of World War II. But what does the "zero" stand for as a metaphor? Is the "zero" a point between transformation? Is it a space between life and death? Is it the point where dreams meet reality? Is it the point of reversal? Is it a place of judgement? Is the "zero" anything at all or some illusion of a barrier between two things that are one and the same? These are all questions and metaphors that can arise by reading this text.
In my reading of this text and analysis of "zero" as a metaphor I have come to believe the latter of all the various metaphors the "zero" could be, and that the "zero" is an illusion, a barrier between two things that are the same, or part of the same thing. On page 31 there is a description of control which reads: "But you had taken on a greater, and more harmful, illusion. The illusion of control. That A could do B. But that was false. Completely. No one can do. Things only happen, A and B are unreal, are names for parts that ought to be inseparable. . . ." (Pynchon, 2006, 31). The idea of the "zero" belonging somewhere on a spectrum makes sense, both scientifically for the concept of psycho physics, as there are still sounds and stimuli that we can't discern but are there; but ultimately are all part of the same spectrum. But it also makes sense in the metaphorical sense of the text as well. For we we look at the concept of reversal, the psychological landscape of the text, and even perhaps an impending death threatened by the war, which would not be seen as a complete death if we believe as Von Braun does that there is a "spiritual existence after death" (Pynchon, 2006, 1). And yet this leads me back to my original question. If the "zero" is some metaphorical barrier, an illusion on some spectrum, what happens, and what does it mean to go 'beyond the zero'? And yet it becomes unclear to the reader if it is even possible to go 'beyond the zero' at all.
What is clear is that, what is 'beyond the zero' for me at this point of my reading of the text is unknown and remains to be scene, and until then, I will remain reading with this passage in my mind: "There is no way out. Lie and wait, lie still and be quiet. Screaming holds across the sky. When it comes, will it come in darkness, or will it bring its own light? Will the light come before or after?" (Pynchon, 2006, 5).
In all honesty, when I ask myself "What is the zero?" no matter how much I look, stare, and study the text itself, I do not know what exactly the zero is, and yet as much as I look, stare, and study the text itself, slowly I become more and more certain that the zero is many things. Literally, the "zero" of this text has its roots in mathematics. And while a the physical uttering of the word "zero" might immediately summon up memories of elementary mathematics, the numerical concept of 0, or even the definition of an additive integer; to a seasoned reader and student of literature on might jump to the metaphorical connotations of "zero" and skip the background scientific and mathematical history of "zero" all together. This I am convinced would be a mistake, and was my own error of reading the text until I re-examined page 142 where the character Roger Mexico is analyzing an power series logarithm. Analysis and research of this logarithm eventually led me to the discovery what is literally happening to Tyrone Slothrop in our text: a reversal of stimuli through the implementation of psycho physics. Psycho physics is a science that uses the logarithms described in the text, and is a practice of discerning an individuals threshold "zero" through an analysis of the sensations created by various stimuli. In order to find this threshold, the subject is subjected to stimuli at such a low level that they can't discern the stimuli at all and therefore there is no sensation or reaction. This stimuli is slowly increased in its intensity and then reversed so that the individual's threshold and "zero" is detected. In the most literal and scientific sense of this text, this is what we can first call our "zero", the threshold level of stimuli's effect to cause a result; and yet when we read this text we being to get a sense that the "zero" must be something bigger than just this scientific concept. And that this "zero" must be a metaphor for something else within the context of the novel and the landscape of World War II. But what does the "zero" stand for as a metaphor? Is the "zero" a point between transformation? Is it a space between life and death? Is it the point where dreams meet reality? Is it the point of reversal? Is it a place of judgement? Is the "zero" anything at all or some illusion of a barrier between two things that are one and the same? These are all questions and metaphors that can arise by reading this text.
In my reading of this text and analysis of "zero" as a metaphor I have come to believe the latter of all the various metaphors the "zero" could be, and that the "zero" is an illusion, a barrier between two things that are the same, or part of the same thing. On page 31 there is a description of control which reads: "But you had taken on a greater, and more harmful, illusion. The illusion of control. That A could do B. But that was false. Completely. No one can do. Things only happen, A and B are unreal, are names for parts that ought to be inseparable. . . ." (Pynchon, 2006, 31). The idea of the "zero" belonging somewhere on a spectrum makes sense, both scientifically for the concept of psycho physics, as there are still sounds and stimuli that we can't discern but are there; but ultimately are all part of the same spectrum. But it also makes sense in the metaphorical sense of the text as well. For we we look at the concept of reversal, the psychological landscape of the text, and even perhaps an impending death threatened by the war, which would not be seen as a complete death if we believe as Von Braun does that there is a "spiritual existence after death" (Pynchon, 2006, 1). And yet this leads me back to my original question. If the "zero" is some metaphorical barrier, an illusion on some spectrum, what happens, and what does it mean to go 'beyond the zero'? And yet it becomes unclear to the reader if it is even possible to go 'beyond the zero' at all.
What is clear is that, what is 'beyond the zero' for me at this point of my reading of the text is unknown and remains to be scene, and until then, I will remain reading with this passage in my mind: "There is no way out. Lie and wait, lie still and be quiet. Screaming holds across the sky. When it comes, will it come in darkness, or will it bring its own light? Will the light come before or after?" (Pynchon, 2006, 5).
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Notes and Make-shift Graphic Organizers:
World War II and the Post Modern Landscape
Pynchon's novel takes place at the end of World War II and in my perspective is a logical and wise choice for a novel like this one. From even looking at the cover-art, the lack of summarization on the physical book itself, lack of introduction or any other type of clues that hint to the reader what is inside these pages, it is clear that Pynchon is trying to create some kind of transgressive landscape or setting in this text. Much of the first section I have read so far goes in and out of dreams, thoughts, characters, perspectives, and realities and is one of the reasons that the text is so difficult to read. And yet all of these perspectives, realities, and characters makes for a meaningful portrayal and landscape for the text at hand.
Why is World War II such a great landscape for this text? Well if one looks historically at the war and its events one can see how World War II was really an accumulation, mixing, and surmountable event that must have been incredibly hard for those who lived through it to comprehend or even fathom its existence/ occurrence. The Holocaust and the rise of Nazism, which took place during this time, was also an incredibly difficult and almost unfathomable part of World War II that must have been even more impossible to comprehend at the time. (The Holocaust was the genocide of six million Jews in Europe. This type of genocide and hatred, is something personally I find incredibly hard to understand even historically today.) In undergraduate college, I took a whole quarter of coursework on Germany leading from the end of World War I all the way through the Weimar era to the end of World War II and from what I have been able to gather from the art, readings, historical/ non-fiction texts, and the coursework I completed during this time, was that the political and social influences of this time World War I, Weimar Germany, the rise of socialism and fascism in Europe, World War II, the Holocaust, and the eventual endings of World War II created a psychological landscape in Europe that by any means was constantly in flux, and at times unfathomable. It truly was a time period that changed the world and it's cultural, social, political landscapes, and is the perfect setting for Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow and a post modern novel.
Why is World War II such a great landscape for this text? Well if one looks historically at the war and its events one can see how World War II was really an accumulation, mixing, and surmountable event that must have been incredibly hard for those who lived through it to comprehend or even fathom its existence/ occurrence. The Holocaust and the rise of Nazism, which took place during this time, was also an incredibly difficult and almost unfathomable part of World War II that must have been even more impossible to comprehend at the time. (The Holocaust was the genocide of six million Jews in Europe. This type of genocide and hatred, is something personally I find incredibly hard to understand even historically today.) In undergraduate college, I took a whole quarter of coursework on Germany leading from the end of World War I all the way through the Weimar era to the end of World War II and from what I have been able to gather from the art, readings, historical/ non-fiction texts, and the coursework I completed during this time, was that the political and social influences of this time World War I, Weimar Germany, the rise of socialism and fascism in Europe, World War II, the Holocaust, and the eventual endings of World War II created a psychological landscape in Europe that by any means was constantly in flux, and at times unfathomable. It truly was a time period that changed the world and it's cultural, social, political landscapes, and is the perfect setting for Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow and a post modern novel.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
obligatory letter to the reader. . .
Reader,
Writing for me has become over the years less and less an outlet to write my own narratives and stories whether personal or fictional. As a child, I spent many hours of my life producing what I now feel are embarrassing works of fiction, short stories, and horribly angsty teenage poetry. But as I have developed as a reader, and a student of literature, my own writing and my desire to write has become transformed in its nature. I grew to have a greater desire to write more than I had as a child, but not in the same way. Instead of writing creatively, my creativity moved off the page and more into my theoretical interpretations of texts. Perhaps socialized by my higher education and the writings I had to produce as a student; or perhaps just finally finding a genre I felt was meaningful to my own personal existence as a individual and as a reader, I have finally found that my writing has become centered around the analytic, and didactic relationship a reader can have with a text through writing. Developing this didactic relationship of the reader with the text is what I have sought to do through my writer's workshop project: this blog on Gravity's Rainbow. And although through this course I have not managed to develop this project to its fullest capacity, I have found that this is a project that is important to me and will remain with me when this course is over. I hope to continue this project for the entirety of this text, and perhaps through other texts as well. Ultimately, I hope that as a reader this project will push me into further discourse with a subject matter that I love.
~ Gwendolyn
Writing for me has become over the years less and less an outlet to write my own narratives and stories whether personal or fictional. As a child, I spent many hours of my life producing what I now feel are embarrassing works of fiction, short stories, and horribly angsty teenage poetry. But as I have developed as a reader, and a student of literature, my own writing and my desire to write has become transformed in its nature. I grew to have a greater desire to write more than I had as a child, but not in the same way. Instead of writing creatively, my creativity moved off the page and more into my theoretical interpretations of texts. Perhaps socialized by my higher education and the writings I had to produce as a student; or perhaps just finally finding a genre I felt was meaningful to my own personal existence as a individual and as a reader, I have finally found that my writing has become centered around the analytic, and didactic relationship a reader can have with a text through writing. Developing this didactic relationship of the reader with the text is what I have sought to do through my writer's workshop project: this blog on Gravity's Rainbow. And although through this course I have not managed to develop this project to its fullest capacity, I have found that this is a project that is important to me and will remain with me when this course is over. I hope to continue this project for the entirety of this text, and perhaps through other texts as well. Ultimately, I hope that as a reader this project will push me into further discourse with a subject matter that I love.
~ Gwendolyn
Two of My Favorite Illustrations From Zak Smith. . .
no. 49
no. 12
both of these images are by Zak Smith and from his website which is in the link section of my blog. I do not own these images in any way.
both of these images are by Zak Smith and from his website which is in the link section of my blog. I do not own these images in any way.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Quote Love:
This section and further sections like it I am simply going to refer to as Quote Love because in the manner I need to write and engage with in a text, I require the accumulation of many quotes that push me to a reading.
"Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death.
~ Wernher von Braun" (Pynchon, 2006, pg.1)
"A market needed no longer be run by the Invisible Hand, but now could create itself - it's own logic, momentum, style, from inside. Putting the control inside was ratifying what de facto had happened - that you had dispensed with God. But you had taken on a greater, and more harmful illusion. The illusion of control. That A could do B. But that was false. Completely. No one can do. Things only happen, A and B are unreal, are names for parts that out to be inseparable. . . ." (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 31).
"Well: he guesses They have euchred Mexico into some such Byzantine exercise, probably to do with the Americans. Perhaps the Russians. 'The White Visitation," being devoted to psychological warfare, harbors a few of each, a Behaviorist here, a Pavlovian there. It's none of Pirate's business But he notes that with each film delivery, Roger's enthusiasm grows. Unhealthy, unhealthy: he has the sense of witnessing an addiction. He feels that his friend, his provisional wartime friend, is being used for something not quite decent," (Pynchon, 2006, 35).
"What finally irritated him out of all tolerance was that the dog didn't know how to reverse its behavior. It could open doors to the rain and the spring insects but not close them . . . knock over garbage, vomit on the floor, but not clean it up - how could anyone live with such a creature?" (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 53).
"The great balloons drift in the sky, pearl-grown, and the air is so still that this morning's brief snow still clings to the steel cables, white goes twisting peppermint-stick down thousands of feet of night. And the people who might have been asleep in the empty houses here, people blown away, some already forever . . . are they dreaming of cities that shine all over with lamps at night, of Christmases seen again from the vantage of children and not of sheep huddled so vulnerable on their bare hillside, so bleached by the Star's awful radiance? or of songs so funny, so lovely or true, that they can't be remembered on waking . . . dreams of peacetime. . . .
"What was it like? Before the war?" She knows she was alive then, a child, but it's not what she means," (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 60).
"Roger Mexico thinks it's a statistical oddity. But he feels the foundations of that discipline trembling a bit now, deeper than oddity ought to drive. Odd, odd, odd - think of the word: such white finality in its closing clap of tongue. It implies moving past the tongue-stop- beyond the zero- and into the other realm. Of course you don't move past. But you do realize, intellectually, that's how you ought to be moving," (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 87).
"He dreams often these days of a very pale woman who wants him, who never speaks - but the absolute confidence in her eyes . . . his awful certainty that she, a celebrity everyone recognizes of sight, knows him and has no reason to speak to him beyond the beckoning that's in her face, sends him vibrating awake in the nights," (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 105).
"Hunting across the zero between waking and sleep, his halfway limp cock still inside her, their strengthless legs bent the same angle . . . " (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 121).
"But he must remain open - even to the possibility that the Psi people are right. "We may all be right," he puts in his journal tonight, "so may be all we have speculated, and more. Whatever we may find, there can be no doubt that he is, physiologically, historically, a monster. We must never lose control. The thought of him lost in the world of men, after the war, fills me with a deep dread I cannot extinguish. . . . " (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 147).
"Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death.
~ Wernher von Braun" (Pynchon, 2006, pg.1)
"A market needed no longer be run by the Invisible Hand, but now could create itself - it's own logic, momentum, style, from inside. Putting the control inside was ratifying what de facto had happened - that you had dispensed with God. But you had taken on a greater, and more harmful illusion. The illusion of control. That A could do B. But that was false. Completely. No one can do. Things only happen, A and B are unreal, are names for parts that out to be inseparable. . . ." (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 31).
"Well: he guesses They have euchred Mexico into some such Byzantine exercise, probably to do with the Americans. Perhaps the Russians. 'The White Visitation," being devoted to psychological warfare, harbors a few of each, a Behaviorist here, a Pavlovian there. It's none of Pirate's business But he notes that with each film delivery, Roger's enthusiasm grows. Unhealthy, unhealthy: he has the sense of witnessing an addiction. He feels that his friend, his provisional wartime friend, is being used for something not quite decent," (Pynchon, 2006, 35).
"What finally irritated him out of all tolerance was that the dog didn't know how to reverse its behavior. It could open doors to the rain and the spring insects but not close them . . . knock over garbage, vomit on the floor, but not clean it up - how could anyone live with such a creature?" (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 53).
"The great balloons drift in the sky, pearl-grown, and the air is so still that this morning's brief snow still clings to the steel cables, white goes twisting peppermint-stick down thousands of feet of night. And the people who might have been asleep in the empty houses here, people blown away, some already forever . . . are they dreaming of cities that shine all over with lamps at night, of Christmases seen again from the vantage of children and not of sheep huddled so vulnerable on their bare hillside, so bleached by the Star's awful radiance? or of songs so funny, so lovely or true, that they can't be remembered on waking . . . dreams of peacetime. . . .
"What was it like? Before the war?" She knows she was alive then, a child, but it's not what she means," (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 60).
"Roger Mexico thinks it's a statistical oddity. But he feels the foundations of that discipline trembling a bit now, deeper than oddity ought to drive. Odd, odd, odd - think of the word: such white finality in its closing clap of tongue. It implies moving past the tongue-stop- beyond the zero- and into the other realm. Of course you don't move past. But you do realize, intellectually, that's how you ought to be moving," (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 87).
"He dreams often these days of a very pale woman who wants him, who never speaks - but the absolute confidence in her eyes . . . his awful certainty that she, a celebrity everyone recognizes of sight, knows him and has no reason to speak to him beyond the beckoning that's in her face, sends him vibrating awake in the nights," (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 105).
"Hunting across the zero between waking and sleep, his halfway limp cock still inside her, their strengthless legs bent the same angle . . . " (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 121).
"But he must remain open - even to the possibility that the Psi people are right. "We may all be right," he puts in his journal tonight, "so may be all we have speculated, and more. Whatever we may find, there can be no doubt that he is, physiologically, historically, a monster. We must never lose control. The thought of him lost in the world of men, after the war, fills me with a deep dread I cannot extinguish. . . . " (Pynchon, 2006, pg. 147).
Monday, May 9, 2011
The struggle to read Pynchon
So reading this novel has really given me time to reflect on my reading practices and since I am including this blog in my writer's workshop for 108A, I thought I would take this moment to write about how difficult it has been so far for me to read this book. This is the first novel, in a very long time, that I have definitely felt like I am having a comprehension issue or that I am extremely challenged comprehension wise. And while this can be frustrating at moments, I know the book is within my comprehension level and simply requires an amount of opportunities for re-reading, taking notes in the margins of the text, and just slowing down my reading in general for comprehension. As I have implemented these I have had much better success in reading and slowly understanding this novel, but it has taken me much longer to read than the average text. I look at this novel though as an opportunity for me to grow as a reader especially since it is so challenging. I love to read, and as an undergraduate Literature major, I was usually required to read 1.5 to 2 books per week for each class along with a assortment of critical theory and essays, so it is a refreshing change to be able to take time to read a novel at my own comprehensive pace as well as read something that is not a quick read for me.
As far as teaching goes reading a novel at pretty much my frustration level has been really helpful for me to reflect on what it might be like for our students to read texts or to struggle with the texts in the classroom. (And while I know that we often shoot for students reading at their instructional and independent levels, I also know that too often students are exposed to texts that are at their frustration level; especially those struggling readers who are far below the rest of the class.) I can definitely relate to the struggling reader now in my classroom and see how hard it must be for them to read and want to finish reading a text that is extremely hard or may be simply too hard for them. This text for me has definitely been a challenge and I'm not going to lie, at times I have contemplating dropping it for exhaustion reasons, and going back to something that I can breeze through in a week, but isn't challenging for me. And yet I also love reading so much and have such a desire to read this book, I slowly but surely keep pushing through it. But one thing I also know is that if I hadn't been given and had so many opportunities for success in reading to be able to really learn to love reading like I do, then I might not have that desire and love of reading to push through and really comprehend and read such a difficult book, which is something to think about when encouraging our students to read and how to proceed to do so.
As far as teaching goes reading a novel at pretty much my frustration level has been really helpful for me to reflect on what it might be like for our students to read texts or to struggle with the texts in the classroom. (And while I know that we often shoot for students reading at their instructional and independent levels, I also know that too often students are exposed to texts that are at their frustration level; especially those struggling readers who are far below the rest of the class.) I can definitely relate to the struggling reader now in my classroom and see how hard it must be for them to read and want to finish reading a text that is extremely hard or may be simply too hard for them. This text for me has definitely been a challenge and I'm not going to lie, at times I have contemplating dropping it for exhaustion reasons, and going back to something that I can breeze through in a week, but isn't challenging for me. And yet I also love reading so much and have such a desire to read this book, I slowly but surely keep pushing through it. But one thing I also know is that if I hadn't been given and had so many opportunities for success in reading to be able to really learn to love reading like I do, then I might not have that desire and love of reading to push through and really comprehend and read such a difficult book, which is something to think about when encouraging our students to read and how to proceed to do so.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Sample Page of Notetaking
A Note About Purpose:
So my professor has asked that I put a note in about purpose and where I expect to go with this blog for a kind of framework with to work with. I first became interested in the literary blog as I explained before as way to engage deeply with a text and have enjoyed the previously mentioned Solinquist blog on Coetzee which I will look to as a kind of mentor text. That said I do not fully expect where this blog will take me or what will come of it. I hope to keep on with it after this class and I hope it makes an effect on my reading somehow. As far as this blog concerning writers workshop and education is concerned it will mainly be a content study of literature and it's analysis through writing. It is important as a teacher to really think of how you can model and how you read a text and in some ways I do hope this blog will help me explicitly think about how I read and how I write perhaps and help me reflect on how I might teach this in some small way or model this thinking to my students.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
GR:1: pg.3:
The first page of the text (minus the heading and quote on the previous page which I will write about later), begins "A SCREAMING COMERS ACROSS THE SKY. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now," (Pynchon, 3). Right from the first line, we are struck by the presence of sound as a facet for imagery in the text. This use of sound to convey the physical surroundings and characterize the setting is done masterfully. The first line of this text is an excellent example of this, and I have noticed so far the continuance of this use of sound in the novel as well. Sound in this first page is used in polarization to light, or the absence of it.
Absence of Light: The absence of light in the beginning of the text immediately places us in what seems almost to be a post apocalyptic universe where we are uncertain of what has happened to cause the world to be this way, and yet we are struck that there is something a miss. Perhaps the novel's beginning at night in a setting where there is no light is used to be metaphorical; making some note on the setting being devoid of hope. Perhaps it is used to set the scene for us as a reader, to paint in our minds a setting that is filled with murky blackness and sullen lumped figures making their way through this iron environment. Perhaps it is done to make the reader feel as the individuals the narrator speaks of in the text that we too are: "pushing into older and more desolate parts of the city. Is this the way out? Faces turn to windows, but no one dares to ask, not out loud," (Pynchon, 3). Perhaps all three, I will continue studying the use of light in the text as I continue reading.
Spectacle: I have long been fascinated with the use of the concept of the spectacle in literary texts, and I am always on the lookout for some small hit nor use of this concept. The narrator of the text makes reference to a spectacle on page 3: "He's afraid of the way the glass will fall - soon - it will be a spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace. But coming down in total blackout, without one glint of light, only great invisible crashing," (Pynchon, 3). I find this quote quite interesting since it references the concept of the spectacle, which is ironic since in it seems that one of the inherent qualities of a spectacle is that one must have a witness or be able to see a spectacle, which in an environment that is devoid of light, like this one is not possible. And yet, once again the narrator brings in that quality of sound again, with the use of the line: "without one glint of light, only great invisible crashing," (Pynchon, 3), and with this we are once again made aware of the ability of sound to convey and almost take over the properties of light in this first page, filling in the details and needs that the absence of light would leave this world in need of.
Absence of Light: The absence of light in the beginning of the text immediately places us in what seems almost to be a post apocalyptic universe where we are uncertain of what has happened to cause the world to be this way, and yet we are struck that there is something a miss. Perhaps the novel's beginning at night in a setting where there is no light is used to be metaphorical; making some note on the setting being devoid of hope. Perhaps it is used to set the scene for us as a reader, to paint in our minds a setting that is filled with murky blackness and sullen lumped figures making their way through this iron environment. Perhaps it is done to make the reader feel as the individuals the narrator speaks of in the text that we too are: "pushing into older and more desolate parts of the city. Is this the way out? Faces turn to windows, but no one dares to ask, not out loud," (Pynchon, 3). Perhaps all three, I will continue studying the use of light in the text as I continue reading.
Spectacle: I have long been fascinated with the use of the concept of the spectacle in literary texts, and I am always on the lookout for some small hit nor use of this concept. The narrator of the text makes reference to a spectacle on page 3: "He's afraid of the way the glass will fall - soon - it will be a spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace. But coming down in total blackout, without one glint of light, only great invisible crashing," (Pynchon, 3). I find this quote quite interesting since it references the concept of the spectacle, which is ironic since in it seems that one of the inherent qualities of a spectacle is that one must have a witness or be able to see a spectacle, which in an environment that is devoid of light, like this one is not possible. And yet, once again the narrator brings in that quality of sound again, with the use of the line: "without one glint of light, only great invisible crashing," (Pynchon, 3), and with this we are once again made aware of the ability of sound to convey and almost take over the properties of light in this first page, filling in the details and needs that the absence of light would leave this world in need of.
J.M. Coetzee Blog
Here is the link to the blog that my professor showed my about J.M. Coetzee: http://www.sobriquetmagazine.com/labels/J.M.%20Coetzee.html
The project is complete and so is the blog, enjoy!
The project is complete and so is the blog, enjoy!
Friday, March 11, 2011
The Start of Something/ The Project of a Lunatic
In my senior year of college, my senior seminar professor showed us a link to a literary blog about J.M. Coetzee who is absolutely my favorite author currently, and I remember thinking that a truly literary blog was a fantastic idea. (I have always dreamed of having such a lengthy engagement with a text, and the discipline to read and analyze a text everyday). So I've decided to create this blog dedicated to two texts: Gravity's Rainbow and Moby Dick, I know the two of the most dense novels ever written and the project of a crazy person, but I'm ready for it and so here we go!
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