chirography. Moby Dick, chapter 104.

For anyone interested in the Sorrentino Concordance, this is a list of the “citations” I made for each of the chapter titles. I made one for each title heading. So, if the concordance says that the Pearl Homburg appears in the “Pearl Homburg” chapter, there will be a link there to the citation below for both the chapters titled “Pearl Homburg”. I did it this way because I didn’t have the text to link to, and because this could be useful in making comparisons between chapters of the same name. (Do chapters of the same name feature themes of the same type? etc.) Note: a lot of these citations served mainly as placeholders and could use a little work.

…..

(1.1) IN THE BEDROOM (2.18)
(1.2.)…….. SUCCESS ……..(2.8)
(1.3)….. BORN AGAIN …..(2.13)
(1.4)……….. LOVERS*……..(2.4)
(1.5)….ANOTHER STORY….(2.3)
(1.6)………..MOVIES………..(2.12)
(1.7)…PAIR OF DEUCES…(2.5)
(1.8)….. IN DREAMS*…….(2.11)
(1.9)……ON THE ROOF…..(2.16)
(1.10)A FAMILIAR*WOMAN(2.15)
(1.11)…. IN THE DINER ….(2.23)
(1.12) …….HAPPY DAYS……. (2.1)
(1.13)………….CLAIRE…………(2.2)
(1.14). ROCKEFELLER C.. (2.19)
(1.15)………BROTHERS………(2.14)
(1.16). SMALL ADVENTURE. (1.9)
(1.17)..AN. S.ADVENTURE..(2.20)
(1.18)….. COLD SUPPER … (2.6)
(1.19)… P.G. HOMBURG… (2.10)
(1.20)… AN APARTMENT …(2.7)
…(1.21) SAT. AFTERNOON …(2.21)
(1.22) …. THE JUNGLE ….(2.17)
(1.23)…….. SNOW …………(2.25)
(1.24)………… RAIN …………(2.25)
(1.25)……The ALPINE…… (2.22)
(1.26) …… A WAKE …… (2.26)
……
……

Dan Green’s remarks about Sorrentino (which inspired the concordance) can be found here. I also came upon this essay online by Joseph Conte, which drops the interesting hint that the fifty-two chapters strongly suggest a deck of cards (cards also being prominently featured in Strange Commonplace) a cut deck, you could even say. That idea has made me wonder if the chapters can be further grouped into suits of four — but I haven’t tried looking yet.

sebaga — friction
etelle-medo — the usual
arb — friday
bado nahoo? — is it empty?
*

sahan — plate
shuka — fork
imagay — take care
mnalbat — maybe

—
alle mar — where’s the honey?
boona beza — too much coffee
ferung megib — white food
*
kolf –key
metallo — I’ll be back.

U 111-112

ὣς εἰπὼν ἔμπνευσε μένος μέγα ποιμένι λαῶν,
βῆ δὲ διὰ προμάχων κεκορυθμένος αἴθοπι χαλκῷ.

Butler:

As he spoke he put courage into the heart of the shepherd of his people, and he strode in full armor among the ranks of the foremost fighters.

This is Apollo breathing courage into Aeneas. A more literal translation might, I think, be:

So speaking he inspired the shepherd of the people with great might then helmeted in gleaming bronze he strode among the foremost fighters .

Again — So saying he breathed great might into the shepherd of the host, and he strode amid the foremost fighters, harnessed in flaming bronze.

unmew / mew / mews — Keats (Endymion):

………… But let a portion of ethereal dew
………… Fall on my head, and presently unmew
………… My soul

Terrorists don’t think like army generals; they think like theatre producers…. (guardian).. this struck me as an important distinction but I can’t say why exactly, even excluding the idea of terrorism. — That is, how do generals think versus theater producers? (I suppose one creates a result –the bridge is taken– whereas the other creates an effect — it is “just like” the bridge has been taken.) And by (theatrically) beheading a number of people, it is “just like” the theater producers have achieved a tactical objective, “just like” they’ve landed a significant military blow.

La modération est une crainte de tomber dans l’envie et dans le mépris que méritent ceux qui s’enivrent de leur bonheur ; c’est une vaine ostentation de la force de notre esprit ; et enfin la modération des hommes dans leur plus haute élévation est un désir de paraître plus grands que leur fortune.

Moderation is a fear of falling into the envy and contempt that those who are drunk on their happiness merit; it’s a vain ostentation of the force of our spirit; and, finally, the moderation of men in their most high elevation is a desire to appear still greater than their fortune.

[18]

to translate this with extreme liberty (my reading of it more than my translation) … moderation is a fear of being held in contempt as one who can’t control himself; moderation is a vain ostentation (for of course one can control oneself — but so what); and, in short, people prefer to present themselves as moderate than to, the appearances be damned, satisfy their desires.

The exchange between India and Bangladesh means that the world will not only lose one of its most unique borders, but it will also lose the only third-order enclave in the world – an enclave surrounded by an enclave surrounded by an enclave surrounded by another state. [POST]

***

El Salvador’s murder rate is among the highest in the world. Last month, a record 677 murders took place in the relatively small Central American country, making it the deadliest month since the nation’s brutal civil war ended in the early 1990s. During the first six months of 2015, there were 2,965 murders, up from 1,840 for the same period in 2014.… [POST]

* *
Pitcairn Islands, New Swabia
la finalité dernière ,Sobre las Olas
alto el fuego, una red encomiable

5 recycling stumpers old but interesting Slate article on recycling [3/23/10].

Shelby County v. Holder (*) / citizens united/ MCCUTCHEON ET AL. v. FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION Plain of Jars vair los portaaviones estadounidenses “the greatest disgrace ever dealt to American arms”

whylom / * * letter pound to crane You Are Everything The number of animals killed in the United States is estimated at a million per day… roadkill

Patras; The Fiftieth Birthday of Agassiz; comorbities; The March To The Sea. Brod. sublation — Moby Dick (production) — RamapoO valley —labile— * A new anti-Semitism rising in France (WP)

lapallissades. glassine.gehenna — Vauban —Oxus ; Formerly one of the four largest lakes in the world [*] — Zosima teaches that people must forgive others by acknowledging their own sins and guilt before others: no sin is isolated, so everyone is responsible for their neighbour’s sins (Zizek)

This is the clearest description I’ve come across of the snap-back/ terms of access provision of the proposed treaty with Iran, which (as it’s described) sounds pretty reasonable:

Iran will also immediately adhere to the Additional Protocol of the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which allows IAEA inspectors to demand access to any site in the country, including military facilities.

Once it submits a request to Iran to visit an “undeclared” facility, the IAEA and Iran will have 14 days to agree on the terms of access. If IAEA concerns are not met within that period, a joint commission made up of the seven negotiating countries — Iran and the United States and its partners — plus the European Union, will have up to seven days to review the dispute and decide what Iran needs to do.

Only five of the eight members need to agree, effectively ensuring that Iran, Russia and China cannot prevail if they vote together. Iran then has three days to implement the decision. If it does not, “then we can begin snap-back” of sanctions, an administration official said.

[Elsewhere: “a good deal“]

…..INFERIOR…....
……ORBITAL………
…….FISSURE…….…
N……..Infra-……..….
u………orbital…………
d……….foramen……….…
ie………..Bannana………..
suit…………Massacre………….
………….Charles…………..
HODDEN………Did…….curseof…
GRAY……………bin………capist………
strid…………….ca………..tranoul…...
ation……………..pi..tow is………………
land………………s…XILLA…………………
MA……………………….c…..FLOATING…………..…….
20………….um………………..……..
……………….……………….………

Life is good; mistakes are made; forgiveness should be often asked for and accepted. Love Life. Life is God.

War and Peace, 1956 w/ Audrey Hepburn (as Natasha), Henry Fonda (as Pierre), and Mel Ferrer (as Prince Andrew — “I was a hater of life”). (Mel Ferrer died in June of ’08 and I recently saw him also as Robert Cohn in The Sun Also Rises). Also starring Vittorio Gassman and Anita Ekberg, with Herbert Lom, Oskar Homolka, Helmut Dantine, Tullio Carminati, Barry Jones, Milly Vitale, Anna-Maria Ferrero, Wilfrid Lawson, May Britt, Jeremy Brett and John Mills.

Was talking with someone why Absolom was repeated in the title to Absolom Absolom! but the repetition is the bible’s [for example. Sam II; 19:4]:

And the king hid his face; and the king cried out in a great voice, saying, my son Absolom, Absolom my son!

Septuagint (which doesn’t add any thing but still nice to see):

Και ο βασιλευς εκρυψε το προσωπον αυτου και εκραξεν ο βασιλευς φωνη μεγαλη, λεγων, υιε μου Αβεσσαλωμ, Αβεσσαλωμ υιε μου.

One idea: that A Strange Commonplace is essentially a form of picaresque novel –that it is nothing other than an interesting collection of unrelated vignettes– and the “repetitions” serve the same purpose as the hero/ protagonist of the typical picaresque novel, that of tying the various adventures together. In other words, the repetitions serve a structural purpose, and are what make A Strange Commonplace plausible as a single book. (Which may be close to the same as saying — the repetitions are Macguffins.)

Another idea: is that while, as in the forgoing, A Strange Commonplace is essentially a picaresque novel –one unrelated tale followed by another and having “repetitions” instead of a central protagonist– the repetitions were not added after the fact, to provide the structure, but were rather used before the fact, in order to create the vignettes in the first place — as part of a method of composition.

[In this view, Sorrentino, instead of saying, “I’m going to add a borsalino hat to this story so as to suggest a tie-in with this other story with a borsalino,” has established before writing the story, as a formal or informal rule of its composition, that it is to include one or more of these repeated elements. So they are essentially writing prompts for him: objects like the homburg hat and the gabardine dress located Sorrentino among the field of things he is capable of writing of, and so became his staring point.]

In what sense a symbol: I don’t entirely discount the idea of the repetitions serving a more traditional symbolic function, but would argue, first, they are more “signs” which we come to identify with certain ideas (the Grey Homburg, for example, with some sort of male sexual misdeed) than symbols of bottomless significance or “meaning.” And, second, that some sort of accounting needs to be made for the fact that human characters don’t seem to enjoy a privileged existence over objects with respect to their symbolism: that is, if the “grey homburg” is a symbol of something, so is “Claire.” One is not more or less symbol than the other, one is not more or less character than the other.

*

Elsewhere on this site: a Commonplace concordance.

[Sonya’s remarks not too far off from the Pope’s in the recent Encyclical, “but now, it’s not convincing my friend, as I must” …“]

*
“…a shortened form of ‘attire’ (n.). The notion is of the tire as the dressing
tire of the wheel.” Space Fence
Ludlow massacre
Petroleum play
Desquamation
Didicoy. PETM
.

400PPM
..Mal Waldron *
Stuart Murdoch
zanzibar Volubilis
… “But why be wanton?”
Developed from the adverb ‘then’, and not distinguished from it in spelling until c.1700… than

United States. Nietzsche’s distinction between nations that are plants that climb (Greece) and those that are like plants that spread (Rome) …

Ancient cultures and ethnic diversity. How ethnically diverse was Rome? If it was more diverse when it was decaying than when it was growing, or the opposite, what would that speak to? [I.e., how does diversity track against the rise and fall of the Roman Empire — against the rise and fall of other nations and empires.]

— Was Rome more or less diverse than Greece? Than Persia? The Parthians? Were ancient states “diverse” in the same way modern ones can be? (Are modern states, on the whole, diverse?) Was there an ancient conception of diversity? Does diversity mean different things among different cultures or races? (Did diversity in Ancient China mean the same as in Ancient England)

— If Rome was never as diverse in the same sense as the United States (another “spreading plant”) has become, does that provide the United States with a different set of opportunities? might be a somewhat different variety of ‘plant’?

— And races comparable to City-states? Are “spreading plants” more or less diverse than climbing flowering ones […]

“Pauvre et san honneurs la nudité de sa condition avilissait tous les avantages des autres” (Valery of Mallarmé, as quoted by Ciryl Connolly, The Unquiet Grave.)

this terrible school of abnegation is undertaken voluntarily […] to escape the lot of those who have lived their whole life without finding their true selves in themselves

Brothers K.