Gravity's Rainbow notes p. 457-468, 468-472, 473-482

Wiki 457-468

Max Weber's Charisma: Comes from political structure.

Gesellschaft: generally translated as "community and society", are categories which were used by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies in order to categorize social relationships into two types. The Gesellschaft is associated with modern society and rational self-interest, which weakens the traditional bonds of family and local community that typify the Gemeinschaft. Max Weber, a founding figure in sociology, also wrote extensively about the relationship between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. Weber wrote in direct response to Tönnies.

Good Ship Lollipop (YouTube) by Shirley Temple.

There are so many articles about Pynchon, but I found this one: “A Suspension Forever at the Hinge of Doubt”: The Reader-trap Of Bianca In Gravity’s Rainbow by Bernard Duyfhuizen (source).

"The reader must engage the play of differance encoded in GR‘s textual signs to avoid falling into traps of premature narrative closure."

""différance" is a concept introduced by Jacques Derrida to describe the fundamental nature of meaning and language. It emphasizes that meaning is not inherent in signs but arises from their differences and relationships with other signs, and that meaning is always deferred, never fully present." (Google)

Wiki 468-472

More clarifications from Google:

"The term "mucus indifference" likely refers to a lack of concern or awareness about the importance of mucus. While mucus is often seen as a nuisance, it plays a vital role in protecting the body from infection and maintaining the moisture of various tissues."

"Alpdrucken" is a German word that translates to "nightmare" in English. It literally means "elf-pressure" or "elf-oppression". This concept originates from folklore, where nightmares were believed to be caused by an alp, a creature similar to an elf, sitting on someone's chest during sleep. The weight of the alp would cause the sleeper to feel oppressed and awaken in terror.

Wiki 473-482

"Kurhaus" is a German word that translates to "spa house" or "health resort" in English.

Comments

Manet and Degas

Brilliant video explaining the exhibit. Go to the Met and see the exhibit! It's really quite special. In the last gallery the painting this sketch is based off of, of the execution of a Mexican president. The painting has been cut into sections, and the surviving Degas has reassembled them. NY Times review

The case for Harris

Motley Kamuka Blog endorses Kamala Harris. In general, Trump just wants to lower taxes on the rich, and do nothing, sell whatever influence he can to line his pockets. Apparently the emoluments clause in the constitution has no teeth. Harris has a set of ideas about policy that are fairly middle of the road. In most countries she's would be seen as a centrist. Spin about her radical agendas are exaggerated. I'm not sure how he got past " grab them by the pussy ", but he did and here we are. Women: Obviously the idea of giving women pregnancy tests at the borders of the state, and then if they come back and don't have a baby, they go to jail, isn't really what most women want. Pick Harris. I understand if you think abortion is murder, maybe you've been told that by the Catholic church, which has the same ideal of Buddhism that you don't kill--so follow your religion for yourself. Not everyone is Christian or Buddhist or even has a religion. Women are ...

AOC

Dark Brandon meet Dark Alex. I see her advising the republicans to stick to their guns and never compromise. They don’t want to do anything, only obstruct. So they don’t actually need to be unified. Chaos isn’t organized. This is fine. Read all about it from Heather Cox Richardson , a historian who covers current events. "As their policies threatened to lose voters by concentrating wealth upward and hollowing out the middle class, Republicans increasingly warned that minority voters wanted socialism and were destroying the nation to get it. Trump rode that narrative to power, and now tearing down the current government is the idea that drives the Republican base." While we're at it, here's another funny photo from the Onion: And then: I listened to the Times podcast about George Santos . He basically lied about, I don't know, 80% of his resume, and has a mysterious $700k in his "corporation" which has no clients. So he's a Russian or Chinese plant, o...

Motley Kamuka

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