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Look Into a Glass Quartinion

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willems

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Mar 17, 2012, 2:33:20 PM3/17/12
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On page 590 someone comments,"they belive that Hamilton didn't so much
figure it out as much as recieve it from somewhere beyond." Francis
Aston I belive was an assistant to Hamilton, and had read a book in
which someone named Thompson wrote a peice titled occult chemistry .
He asserted that all the information in the book had been transmitted
via a dream.There was a gas that he described as having an atomic
weight of 22.33 and he gave it a fictitious name Meta -N,
In the mean time Aston substituted Neon gas which has the atomic
weight of 22.33 and was able to identify the electron within the
atom . In 1922 he was awarded the Nobel prize for his discovery.
It is interesting that with quadratic equations that involve an
unknown quanity and it's square
without the square the unknown quantity would be called linear.
I've learned that to Pythagoreans, to whom numbers are sacred,2 is
considered male and three female which is the reverse of the general
symbologie in Finnigans Wake, with the "three Willingdone and two
jealous Jennies."
Oh well it gets curiouser and curiouser,
Happy St. Peatricks and greater glory to Sheena na Geg.

Psmith

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Mar 19, 2012, 9:25:18 PM3/19/12
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Interesting that you mention dreams. I haven't had a dream involving
a Pynchon book for a while.

I read up to page 632 today. I find the discussion of Shamballa
interesting.

Bhavani

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Mar 22, 2012, 9:52:43 PM3/22/12
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On Mar 17, 11:33 am, willems <williams195...@yahoo.com> wrote:

>   I've learned that to Pythagoreans, to whom numbers are sacred,2 is
> considered male and three female which is the reverse of the general
> symbologie in Finnigans Wake, with the "three Willingdone and two
> jealous Jennies."

I posted this before but I guess it didn't take.

For qabalists/quarterinions the symbolism for numbers changes with
context. For instance 2 corresponds with Chokmah = male while 2 also
represents the tarot trump the High Priestess = female. 3 = Binah =
female while by gematria 3 = Father which connects with 'Willingdone
and 3 also represents the mystic number of Chokmah. Deciding how to
interpret different symbolism qabalistically works excellently to
develop and strengthen intuition. Thank-you for this insightful
comment.

> Oh well it gets curiouser and curiouser,

Yes, it does seem like a looking glass world.

Psmith

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Mar 22, 2012, 10:24:09 PM3/22/12
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I wonder what the Pynch thinks of Crowley and/or the Kabbalah.

I've decided to teach Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the
Looking Glass in my science fiction and fantasy class in 2013,
assuming the class makes the schedule.

Bhavani

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Mar 25, 2012, 4:09:22 PM3/25/12
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On Mar 22, 7:24 pm, Psmith <Ewagner...@aol.com> wrote:

> I wonder what the Pynch thinks of Crowley and/or the Kabbalah.

p. 665-666:

"From somewhere came a repeated figure being played on an alpenhorn.

Though he was not ready to share it with his brother, not even Reef
had been exempt from the folly up there. "What kind of dog's that?"
he asked Ruperta at one point.

"Mouffette? She's a papillon . . . a sort of French ladies' lapdog."

"A --You say," gears in his mind beginning to crank, "' lap' --
French . . . lap-dog?"

I really enjoy how much music Pynch employs. Never heard of an
alpenhorn before ... I assume it's a horn played in the Alps. This
reminded me of an old Beatles song:
Alp, I need somebody.
Alp, not just anybody
Alp, you know I need someone
Aaaaaaaaalp!

What follows, the biting lapdog segment seems to strongly drive home
the "Against the Day" theme. By coincidence, most of it appears on p.
666. Mouffette seems related in demeanor to a Tatzelwurm (p. 655,
659). Pynch maybe suggests the relation when he describes the
Tatzelwurm as "a snake with paws." Yet I don't see a one to one
correspondence between the dog and the wurm more like it corresponds
with the gestalt of that scene, the interaction between Reef and
Mouffette. Mouffette translates to "skunk." Once again I salute
Pynchon's profound sophistication in these matters and his willingness
to confront and explicate unpleasant subjects.

I also really like the first paragraph in the new section that starts
halfway down p.659.

> I've decided to teach Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the
> Looking Glass in my science fiction and fantasy class in 2013,
> assuming the class makes the schedule.

What a great job you have!

Psmith

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Mar 26, 2012, 1:05:40 PM3/26/12
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I also love Pynchon's musical references, and yes, I feel luck to have
such a great job. I tried teaching a Pynchon book in a college
literature class a few years ago, Vineland. It didn't go over too
well, and it had too much sex and drugs for some, I suspect.

My tenth grade honors book has his story "Entropy." Most of the kids
didn't like it. So it goes.

willems

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Mar 27, 2012, 2:39:30 PM3/27/12
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Well Mr. Crowley was an avid mountain climber, As far as the hidden
voice goes it reminds me of a couple of Robert Frost's aphorisms;"It
takes allsorts of in and outdoor schooling to get used to my kind of
fooling", and We dance around in a circle and suppose ,the secret sits
in the middle and knows."

Psmith

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Mar 27, 2012, 9:51:22 PM3/27/12
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Steve, I think of you and I and Bill Walters and Karie Johnson sitting
around 2080 E. Greenway reading Gravity's Rainbow back in the 80's.
"What a long strange trip it's been." I wonder what we'll think of
Pynchon in another 23 years. Will he have a new novel come out in
2036?
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