“A Familiar Woman”
Book 1, chapter 10; Book 2, chapter 15

Characters

1.10 a man and his wife or girlfriend, both unnamed.

2.15 Dentist/ Rapist (Ralph Greenleaf) his first patient victim (Claire Page) his second (another Claire, no last name), his wife (Inez) her lover (Marty)

General Subject/ Plot

1.10: a man confronts likenesses of the significant lady of his life outside of their shared home.

2.15: a dentist gets caught taking advantage of a patient under sedation, years later he finds himself in the same situation with a very similar woman.

Motifs

1.10 Clothing (gabardine, velvet, suede, shorts, flowered dress), alcohol, a literary work (Pierre in another one, the first In Dreams?).

2.15 Claire (two of them both widows both in “forties”), Greenleaf, rape, a nurse, widow, strawberry blond, infidelity, unhappy, murderous thoughts (like the first On the Roof)

Notes

The Sacred Fount. “Coincidence, as life proves over and over again, is so routine as to beggar comment.” (A statement from the 2nd…. Although it doesn’t go with the opening Williams quote, is there a sense in which coincidence, of which the book is replete of instances, is the “strange commonplace” referred to in the the book’s title? Also: are we to look on the fact that both Ralph the dentist and Bill the salesperson of the year have the last name Greenleaf as a coincidence or something else? In what sense is it a coincidence, if it is a coincidence? Would it be coicidental if a book had several character sharing the same name, and having similar life experience, which in fact had nothing to do with each other?)

The first of these is especially puzzling. Does the man have one vision of his lady when he’s in her physical presence and another when he’s outside of it? What does the woman’s clothing have to do with this vision? (It does seem that in a Strange Commonplace identity can be closely wrapped up in what one wears. One can be vulnerable, in undergarments, or invulnerable, in a suit, for instance. To change clothes is to change who one is.)

In the second, it’s notable that there are actually two sets of familiar women, the two Claire’s as well as the two nurses. Should maybe be considered how these mirror each other.

After the second, the next three stories in the second book all deal with rape (though in “The Jungle” it’s more a suggestion.) Notable — the first “On The Roof” precedes the first “A Familiar Woman” while the second “On The Roof” preceds the second “A Familiar Woman.”

“On the Roof”
Book 1, chapter 9; Book 2, chapter 16

Characters

1.9 Male Protagonist, senior credit investigator (unnamed), his wife (Estelle), her deadbeat friends (unnamed), but one of them a redhead.

2.16 Female protagonist (Janet), her husband (Al), black guy and red-headed who rape Janet (unnamed)

General Subject/ Plot

1.9: a professional man comes home to find his wife hanging out with her loathesome childhood friends on the roof.

2.16: a woman joins some men on a roof to smoke hash and they rape her.

Motifs

1.9 deadbeats, redhead, oxford grey suit and homburg (for which he’s laughed at, like first in the bedroom), other clothing, Jesus, alcohol, infidelity –the woman’s)

2.16 redhead, black professional, alcohol, rape, women’s undergarments (the bra in first ‘in dreams’), “Just for a Thrill,” Jesus, rain, apartment

Notes

In the first, a husabnd exits the cupola of the roof to find his wife in a compromising situation –in which she is complicit– with her deadbeat friends; in the second, a different husband exits the cupola on the roof soon to find his wife has been brutally raped and sodomized (not complicit).

This follows a pattern established by the preceding “In Dreams”: in the first “In Dreams” the wife’s promiscuousness exposes the husband to some awkardness and uncertainty; in the second “In Dreams”, a woman is brutally sodomized and raped.

[To state it otherwise: The first and second “On the Roof” repeat a pattern of the first and second “In Dreams” — in the first of each the woman is presented as a sort of liability to the man/ husband, because of her sexual availability; in the second of each, the woman is presented as sexually vulnerable, a victim.]

In the first “On The Roof” the wife seems to enjoy a party, which gets her in trouble with the husband. In the second, she doesn’t enjoy at all the party that her husband is so into himself, and this is what gets her in trouble.

In the first “On The Roof” like the second “In The Bedroom”, the wife laughs at the pretensions implied by the husband donning a homburg.

Each features a redhead, each refers to the banking industry, each has a husband stepping through the door of the cupola…

In general, it’s notable how much these short vignettes suggest about the life histories of their characters, and how the suggested life histories of one chapter will mingle with and refer to the suggested life histories of another.

“In Dreams”
Book 1, chapter 8; Book 2, chapter 11

Characters

1.8 Man (whose dream this is) (Charles? Claire?), woman who could be his wife, and a boy. Young black professional. Three jewish men in store, one a red head. Prostitute that looks like Meryl Streep.

2.11 Man (whose dream this is), a waitress of a diner and three wild youths (eating there), an old man (eating there), other staff of the diner, two policemen.

General Subject/ Plot

1.8: A man’s dream in which is suggested an uneasiness about minorities, money, the fidelity of his wife, maybe gentrification. It involves leaving his “borrowed or leased” apartment and getting separated from his wife and child in the process of going to Manhattan to eat.

2.11: Man dreams an experience at a diner, where three wild youths sexually assault an employee before getting killed themselves.

Motifs

1.8 Claire, Meryl Streep, Bomba the Jungle Boy, Pierre, grey suede gloves, clothing, young black professional (like “Napoleon”), redhead, apartment, infidelity, abortion? (“kid disappeared”)

2.11 diner, Jesus, rape, pale blue silk suit, abortion, nurse, deadbeats

Notes

The first “In Dreams” could be the article talked about in the second “Success”: “a dream in which a woman, the wife of the man who was dreaming, turned into Meryl Streep.”

A third person singular narrator in the first, a first person singular narrator in the second. In the first, the narrator seems highly agitated; in the second, the protagonist seems impassive, detached. The first involves masculine uncertainty about female sexuality, the second involves female victimization from a group of males. The second with a suggestion of metafiction (“‘I have expelled all illusion from this place.'”) the first with a suggestion of the literary (my book, Pierre). Both involve food (the diner, going out to eat), both contain the idea of hypnosis; in both, the antagonists to the dreamer, or the villains of the piece, are three men (old Jewish guys in the first, wild youths in the second). The second “In Dreams” corresponds strongly to the first “In the Diner” (echoed in particular is the disdain of the youths for the working person) — bottle of ketchup from the second “In the Diner”; another appearance of the television, another glimpse of contemporary religion in the diner of the dream; the first doesn’t appear to correspond as closely to other chapters of the book but features many familiar characters: the red head, the young black man, Meryl Streep, Bomba, the apartment, the philco radio, etc…

The re-occurrence of the number “25” is noted — the waitress of the second “In Dreams” seems to have aged by twenty-five years, “5625 Parkcrest West” is the address of the dreamer in the first “In Dreams” — Monica of the second “Movies” is 25 years old — etc.

“Pair of Deuces”
Book 1, chapter 7; Book 2, chapter 5

Characters

1.7 Protagonist, an old man (unnamed), his fellow card players and coinhabitants of what is probably a retirement facility (Warren, Ray, Blackie), problematic daughter-n-law (unnamed)

2.5 Jenny, lover of Ralph and husband of Bill; Inez, wife of Ralph and lover of Bill.

General Subject/ Plot

1.7: old man playing poker at senior facility trades in three cards in the hopes of getting a third deuce, with reflections.

2.5: Two couples (a pair of deuces) cheating on each other during the holiday season. A woman buys a christmas present for her husband with her lover, and have sex; her husband and her lover’s wife, who know of their spouse’s betrayal, are in the meantime also having sex.

Motifs

1.7 Borsalino, baseball caps, powder blue worsted suit, white sun dress, Jesus, Gun Hill Road, Ridge Meadow Manor,

2.5 Christ, Christmas, Santa Claus, infidelity, alcohol (scotch and water, gin), blue suede, San Francisco

Notes

The first “Pair of Deuces” resembles the first “Movies” in that in each a man, feeling something akin to nostalgia, realizes it’s something different from a simple desire to return to the past he craves; in this case, it’s oblivion, it’s to have never been born.

I think the first “Pair of Deuces” is the first time we see an old man as protagonist.

The second “Pair of Deuces” suggests the story told in the first “Another Story” — a woman off to get a gift for her boyfriend/ husband winds up in a hotel room with her boyfriend/ husband’s friend. Also like the first “Another Story”, it seems to occur in San Francisco (St. Francis Hotel).

Is the implication of the first “Pair of Deuces” that the old man wanted to improve on his “pair” (a man and wife) with a third of the same type (another woman) and so lost to Ray, who stuck with his low pair (remained faithful, despite the irritation)?

In both “Pair of Deuces”, the continuing theme of the inefficacy/ hippocracy/ commercialization of religion. In the second, the appearance of television (black and white — so this occurs a good bit in the past), which also plays a role in the story that precedes it, the second “Lovers.” — The shows are portrayed as antic and ridiculous.

“Movies”
Book 1, chapter 6; Book 2, chapter 12

Characters

1.6 Man in a somewhat nostalgic mood (unnamed), child of a broken home.

2.12 Hal/ Yossel, a writer; his mother (unnamed); his wife, Peggy; his seducer/ mistress, Monica Cunningham; Charles Cunningham (Monica’s father); (various other figures)

General Subject/ Plot

1.6: A man arrives at a movie theater he hasn’t been to in years and feels both nostalgic and too wise, at this point in his life, to be truly nostalgic.

2.12: a pastiche or parody of a hollywood movie of the life of a writer –a writer becomes rich and famous for his work; falls prey to a seductress and finds he cannot write; is brought together with his former loyal lover through tragedy; achieves a more substantial degree of fame and riches.

Motifs

1.6 The Alpine (?), movie stars, alcohol, broken marriage (doesn’t sort itself out), happy, adult son of broken marriage. Tarzan.

2.12 Alcohol, writing, broken marriage (sorts itself out), child son survives serious physical ailment.

Notes

In the first “Movies”, the character is standing outside the movies in real life, where nothing works out and its not even clear why it didn’t or who was to blame. In the second “Movies” the action is inside the movie: here there are problems but we have a clear sense of what they are and who the villain is and everything gets sorted out. In the first one, the unnamed son is the central figure while in the second it is the father, Hal. (The narrator in the first “Movies” could almost be the grown, real-life version of the son of the second “Movies”, Scotty.) (Could it be that in the second we see what movies are, and in the first, why people need movies to be like that?)

I think (1.6) is I think the 3rd story consecutively dealing with something long in the past (the previous story involved something forty-one years ago, this story involves something “over forty years ago”)…. We also know that the movies are where divorced fathers take their sons on Saturday Afternoons.

“Another Story”
Book 1, chapter 5; Book 2, chapter 3

Characters

1.5 A guy (unnamed), his friend (unnamed), girlfriend of the friend (Jenny)

2.3 Ray (who has been unfaithful to his wife and is seeking to allay a divorce by means of a letter), Clara (his wife), Maureen (their daughter), Katy (whom the letter is sent through), Janet (Ray’s mistress), Ralph (a friend of Ray’s), Anna (another mutual friend) Clara’s mother and father (unnamed), Connie Moran (whom Clara has sought out for legal counsel), Jack Walsh (Janet’s former boss), Bill Greenleaf (“Salesman of the Year” at Ray’s firm), Pastor Ingebretsen (priest Janet’s talk with.)

General Subject/ Plot

1.5: Story-telling. A man calls an old friend and, non-plussed by the way he receives the call, makes something up about their past –not the thing he’d intended to make up- which the man easily believes.

2.3: Infidelity. A man explains in a letter to his wife the reasons they should reconcile — it only happened the once, it was a human mistake committed under the influence, it is no reason to throw away eleven years of marriage.

Motifs

1.5 Jesus, blue suede jacket, Bomba the Jungle Boy, alcoholic friend, relationship from way back like in “lovers” etc., infidelity, Capwell’s, Los Angeles,

2.3 Letter from husband (like first “Another Story” and “Born Again” and “in the Bedroom…) Jesus, Happy as a clam (like first in the bedroom), alcohol, clothing, career advancement, salesman,

Notes

In the first “Another Story” the protagonist spontaneously creates a story of the past that was different from the one he’d intended to tell, the story of why their friendship had ended perhaps (though the caller too gets lost between the real past and his stories of it). In the second “Another Story” a cheating husband tells his wife a version of a story she’s undoubtedly heard before about how he was only unfaithful to her and one time and it didn’t mean very much and so on…. The first is a phone call between to men who’ve “fallen out of touch”, the second is a letter between a separated husband and wife (the friend tries to rattle the friend, the husband tries to calm the wife.) In the first, “Another” means “a different, a second”, in the second it indicates more of a repetition.

The second “Another Story” could almost be the letter of the first “In The Bedroom”: both include the phrase “happy as a clam.” Both mention Ralph, a friend of the husband. Both mention a woman named Janet, though in the first “In The Bedroom” she is the cousin of the wife, while in the second “In The Bedroom” she is the lover of the husband. (It is certainly possible that the lover of the husband in the first “In The Bedroom,” who is unnamed in this story, is also named Janet, but it seems unlikely Sorrentino would have us think so.)

A number of the chapters of A Strange Commonplace have this quality: there is nothing to prevent them from being a part of the same story line, but it seems unlikely. (Some chapters clearly couldn’t be part of the same story, some chapters clearly are, some chapters clearly fall somewhere in between.)

Instead of a story line or plot maybe the idea of a scatter plot graph is helpful. The real story is unknown and none of the chapters quite tell it –they are mere plots on the graph– while the story line is a sort of average of the plotted points, representative of a general drift or trend.

[…”The story was emerging into the eternal present of all stories, an insubstantial present, a chimera” –first Another Story.]

“Lovers”
Book 1, chapter 4; Book 2, chapter 4

Characters

1.4 narrator (unnamed); woman he has had a long relationship with (unnamed); her husband (known as “the lover”); Clara (whom “the lover”/ husband has an affair with); her brother (unnamed, shot outside a diner); Clara’s Uncle Ray (who beats up “the lover”); a young black man in the music business (unnamed)

2.4 Irene Greenleaf (whose had liason with the narrator), the narrator, a friend (unnamed), Bill (the former husband of Irene), Charlotte (the new wife of Bill), the three children of Bill and Charlotte (unnamed), the borther of Irene (unnamed)

General Subject/ Plot

1.4: A woman, while having remained with her husband, retains a bitter memory of his infidelity decades later, a bitter hatred for the other woman.

2.4: A woman, unable to get over the infidelity of her husband, prays years letter for his death and the death of her family and is startled it doesn’t come to pass.

Motifs

1.4 Diner, infidelity, broken marriage, “black man in the music business” (Napoleon of first “Success”), “Clara/ Claire” figures pregnancy doesn’t come to term (like in second “Born Again”) “she had permitted her hatred to ruin, utterly, what was left of her life” (first “Born Again”), Bay Ridge

2.4 “35 years ago” (just like 1.4), alcohol (whiskey sour, margarita), cigarettes/ ash tray, “for christ’s sake”, brother killed outside a place, unhappiness,

Notes

Both stories involve a man who’s known a woman for a long time who continues to dwell on and be made miserable by memories of her past marriage (which is also the case in the first “Born Again”).

A couple differences/ coincidences: in (1.4) the brother of the other woman is randomly shot outside a diner (the first “In The Diner”) while in (2.4) he’s the deadbeat gambler brother of the betrayed wife and killed in a stupid altercation over boxers. In (1.4) the other woman’s pregnancy doesn’t come to term, in (2.4) she has three kids. In (1.4) the husband and wife remain married but estranged and the narrator is thinking of asking the betrayed wife to live with him, in (2.4) the husband and wife have divorced and the narrator rebuffs the efforts of the betrayed wife to have a romantic or sexual attachment […] Perhaps the crucial difference is that in [1.4] the unfaithful husband’s lover dies whereas in [2.4] the couple continues to live and have three children as well … Also, the [2.4] is more revealing of names.

The first “Lovers” is like the second “Born Again” in featuring a beautiful woman name Clara/ Claire who his very beautiful and has a brother and dies young. However, in the second “Born Again” her brother is Ray while in the first “Lovers” her uncle is named Ray. The brother’s name in the first “Lovers” isn’t given but we are told in that story that his death in front of a diner (reminiscent of that told in the first “In the Diner”) is the occasion for her embarking in an affair with a married man. In the first “Born Again” the married man who had gotten Claire/ Clara pregnant accused the brother (who is a “dim bulb”, maybe like Joey in the second “In the Bedroom”) of being the father.

The first “Born Again” features a woman reflecting on events of 20, 25 years ago; the first “Lovers,” which directly follows the first “Born Again”, has a woman obsessed with events of forty years ago. And in the first “Another Story” which directly follows the first “Lovers” the elapsed time span involved is “41 years ago.” In the second “Lovers” the time lapse mentioned is “35 years ago.” In the second “Lovers” the brother figure is a relative of the betrayed wife — not of the husband’s lover– but he also is said to die, having been beaten to death outside “Papa Joe’s.”

The first “Lovers” alludes also to the first “Success”, and I see no reason why the first and second “Lovers”, and the first “Born Again” and first “Success” and “In the Diner” could not be all referring to the same story. At least, no contradictory information is leaping out at me. (Though the second “Born Again” seems to lead us to a different vein of stories.)

Finally —“sexual fling, an expression, I grant you, even more stupid than ‘brief romance'” another one of these style conscious asides, such as occurs in the first “Success” (“as the cant of the day momentarily had it”) and “Another Story” (“As the smartly descriptive phrase has it”). Although I don’t intend to keep track of these they do seem at least as “symbolic” if that’s the word, “resonate”, as the other repetitions of the work. Perhaps they indicate that the narrator of the stories in which they occur (as opposed to the ones in which they do not) is a writer?

“Born Again”
Book 1, chapter 3; Book 2, chapter 13

Characters

1.3 “Claudia” an embittered estranged wife of Warren, an unnamed daughter.

2.13 Ralph (who’s experience a moral rebirth at marriage), Inez (his wife), Claire (an old friend of Inez whom Ralph has an affair with and impregnates), Ray (brother of Claire), Bill (lover of Inez)

General Subject/ Plot

1.3: An embittered woman angrily reflects on how her ex-husband has used Christianity to absolve himself of past crimes.

2.13: Ralph imagines he’s been “born again” morally through marrying Inez, but his behavior soon becomes very shabby and selfish.

Motifs

1.3 Lingerie and dresser (first “in the bedroom”), white chemise, Jesus, a letter, Bomba (the jungle boy)

2.13 a dim bulb, Jesus, pregnancy/ still birth, rape (second “in the bedroom”), black and white tiles of bathroom floor, San Francisco, Clothes, Groucho Marx, Land of Heart’s Desire

Notes

“somewhat fragmentary couple, perhaps sketchy is a better descriptive.” … Warren, born again, excuses himself for his moral failings in a past marriage but is “the fake recipient of a fake grace.” Ralph feels morally born again by marriage, but it’s an illusion — he’s inescapably unfaithful… The Paris location of 1.3 is unusual — “Claudia” for Claire? […]

Notable that Jesus is mentioned in quite a few of these stories, but almost always as an empty expression, as swearing. In both the “Born Again” stories, a deep cynicism toward the idea that people may change who they are. In the second “Born Again” Clara’s pregnancy results in a “stillborn” — which echoes what happens in the first “Lovers”.

“Eight months” seems the gestation period for Ralph’s old ways to be “reborn.”

In 2.13 Ralph’s rape of Claire in a bathroom, and her incestuous relationship with Ray, are here taken as spurious allegations, elsewhere they are portrayed as fact.

“Success”
Book 1, chapter 2; Book 2, chapter 8

Characters

1.2 Napoleon (black “entertainment consultant”), Claire (his wife), a writer of memoirs made recently famous (unnamed)

2.8 Carson (married man), His also married co-worker with whom he arranges a date (unnamed). [Also mentioned: Sigmund Freud and Meryl Streep]

General Subject/ Plot

1.2: An affair between a memoirist and the wife of an old drug dealer now entertainment professional ends when the woman confides she has myeloma.

2.8: A triste between two married coworkers begins over their lunch break, after one has told the other about a dream he’s read about.

Motifs

1.2 Napoleon, Claire, suit, white shirt, white wine, Chelsea/ Williamsburg, Gitanes, writer/ memoirist, lovers, Los Angeles.

2.8 In Dreams, Meryl Streep, White blouse, business suit, Jesus. Freud (The Interpretation of Dreams),

Notes

In (1.2) the unnamed memoirist, flush with career success, is emotionally callow or made to feel so, and the chapter ends with his career being stalled in L.A.; in (2.8) Carson achieves a dubious romantic success, initiating an affair with an office colleague in spite of their both being married … Can’t quite unpack what is going on in the written-of dream in (2.8). But it seems that, throughout A Strange Commonplace, there are dreams, written of dreams, and here, a dream that is spoken of having been written about.

Are these to be understood as allegories on success (such as, “the ambition to success is shallow and the results of it fleeting and not one hoped and the successful person is not who you’d like him to be”)? In general, what do the chapter headings tell us about the chapters? Is it a more structural than thematic purpose they serve, bringing chapters together which are otherwise not clearly related? They sometimes too seem to draw attention to an aspect of the story that is not the most descriptive or central important.

“In the Bedroom”
Book 1, chapter 1; Book 2, chapter 18

Characters

1.1: wife and mother (unnamed); her unfaithful husband (unnamed); Janet (wife’s cousin); Ralph (whom the husband is staying with.)

2.18 wife and mother (Anna); her unfaithful husband (Jack); their “slow” child (Joey); Jack’s mistress (Jenny); their neighbors (unnamed).

General Subject/ Plot

1.1: Broken marriage. Straying husband, in letter on kitchen table, asks to be taken back, which the wife views with scorn.

2.18: Broken marriage, domestic violence. Overworked wife of straying husband snaps when he’s late for dinner again and leaves mentally ill child at home alone to go to a bar. Husband, who can’t believe this when he gets back, beats and rapes her.

Motifs

1.1 whiskey; Homburg, Fedora; Happy; white silk scarf with blue polka dots; bottle of worcsteshire sauce; Gerritsen Ave/ *.

2.18 Cold supper; whiskey; 7 and 7; Chesterfields; Jesus; green dress; Nassau country, East Flatbush, Canarsie, Chinatown; teapot

Notes

In both a discussion of the husband’s career prospects, in (1.1) going nowhere, in (2.18) may be improving (after having gone nowhere for a while.)… In the bedroom, the wife finds something of her husband’s she once liked and steps on it; in the bedroom, the husband (who hasn’t touched his wife in the bedroom for sometime) rapes her after he’s beaten her (aroused once she’s been degraded)… The first in the bedroom has a family of three with a daughter, the second with a son.

The Second installment is notable for being a continuation of the first ‘Cold Supper’ –these could easily be two parts of the same episode– which is rare for the book. Both the first “in The Bedroom” and the first “cold supper” include the bottle of Worcestershire sauce.

Floruit
Heptarchy
Mercia Rhodopis
Parian Chronicle Moonlight tower
Charition mimebatik, stew, easement
concretion (bowling ball beach pict) ,
Barents, Kara and Laptev seas,,
Bharatiya Janata Party Sangh
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segundo mandato, el rumbo, dos tercios, padecer, ambiental

*
« Je refuse cette nomination, car je ne pense pas que ce soit le rôle d’un gouvernement de décider qui est honorable », a-t-il expliqué, ajoutant que l’Etat « ferait bien de se consacrer à la relance de la croissance en France et en Europe » plutôt que de distribuer ces distinctions. [Monde]

du livre à succès, se consacrer, à la relance “ à 1,5 million d’exemplaires” “très fortes ventes”
*
Aegeus, after whom the Aegean *

Waiting For The Robert E. Lee (Robert E. Lee steamboat)

“The guitar was human; the guitar taught me the secret of the guitar; the guitar learned me to play on the guitar. No music-master have I ever had but the guitar. I made a loving friend of it; a heart friend of it. It sings to me as I to it. Love is not all on one side with my guitar.” (Pierre, Melville.)

Micheal laid the Kafka biography over his chest. It was no use. It would require a complete renovation from top to bottom and even then the old failing structure would stand. The loudness, the coarseness, the glumness –not outside but within– the coarseness –now laying with eyes toward the cieling from the couch, now inserting change to get on the bus, now descending the stairs to get the mail –“It’s no use.”

Eboulement d’une falaise à Saint-Jouin-Bruneval * *

I was thinking about the tamarisk the other night again and another odd thing occurred to me about it, namely that in at least three of the mentions of the tamarisk weaponry is somehow involved. I haven’t gone back to the Iliad in a while so this is all a bit foggy and from memory but I believe the following is true:

— in the first mention, a slain Trojan’s armor is concealed in the tamarisk bush;

— in the second, the axle of a chariot gets twisted up in a tamarisk;

— in the third, a spear that has missed its target is lodged in the ground beside a tamarisk.

I would have to go back and read it, but it seems as if they might be notably different sorts of armament as well: shield — chariot — spear…. I don’t believe the fourth mention involves a weapon. There, the tamarisk is named among other plants as being consumed by fire on the bank of the river Xanthos. [Initial note on the tamarisk in Homer is here.] [Update: is fire the ‘weapon’?]

Looking through the introduction to Don Gifford’s annotation of Ulysses I saw stated the basic premise (or one of them) of the David Foster Wallace story Good Old Neon—

We are all aware, for example, that we can think and perceive far more in the course of a few minutes of multi-leveled consciousness than we could spell out in words in as many hours.

It crossed my mind that this could have been part of the inspiration for Wallace’s story, but probably a more interesting consideration it raises involves contrasting how Joyce and Wallace each portrayed thinking as an act in their fiction: Is Wallace’s portrayal of thought in Good Old Neon to be considered an evolution of, a departure from, or essentially the same as, Joyce’s portrayal of thought in Ulysses? Have we learned anything, in the past hundred or five hundred years, about the portrayal of thought and thinking?

Because the Iapetus Ocean was positioned between continental masses that would at a much later time roughly form the opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean, it can be seen as a sort of precursor of the Atlantic. The Iapetus Ocean was therefore named for the titan Iapetus, who in Greek mythology was the father of Atlas, after whom the Atlantic Ocean was named… Iapetus (*) (*) (*)

*

“If even the lowest slave and scullion maid can bear to commit suicide, why should not one like myself be able to do what has to be done? But the reason I have not refused to bear these ills and have continued to live, dwelling in vileness and disgrace without taking my leave, is that I grieve that I have things in my heart which I have not been able to express fully, and I am shamed to think that after I am gone my writings will not be known to posterity….” Sima Qian

*

Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law ~ Stevens’ dissent, Bush v. Gore

“Alors le Lepreux l’etreignit, et ses yeux tout a coup prirent une clarte d’etoiles; ses cheveux s’allongerent comme les rais du soleil; le souffle de ses narines avait la douceur des roses; un nuage d’encens s’eleva du foyer, les flots chantataient. Cependant une abondance de delices, une joie surhumaine descendait comme une inondation dans l’ame de Julien, pame; et celui dont les bras le serraient toujours, grandissait, grandissait, touchant de sa tete et de ses pieds les deux murs de la cabane. Le toit s’envola, le firmament se deployait; et Julien monta ver les espaces bleus, face a face avec Notre-Seigneur Jesus, qui l’emportait dans le ciel.”

*
Etreindre: hug, grasp. Prirent: passe simple, prendre. Narine: nostril. Flot: wave. Foyer: hearth. Pâmer: to swoon. Cabane: shed, cabin. Emporter: carry away. (Text with diacritical marks.)

*
“Then the leper hugged him, and all at once his eyes took on the brightness of stars; his hair stretched out like the rays of the sun; the breath from his nostrils had the sweetness of roses; a snow of incense rose from the hearth, the waves sang. At the same time, an abundance of delight, a superhuman joy descended as a flood in the soul of Julien, as it swooned; and the one whose arms still held him grew, grew, touching with his head and feet the two walls of the cabin. The roof flew off, the firmament spread out; and Julien climbed toward the blue spaces, face to face with Our Lord Jesus, who carried him away in the sky.”