Singing Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow: Interfaces of Song, Narrative, and Sonic Performance
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the novel's acoustic background, pointing to the formal structure of songs and its role in locating singing human voices in opposition to noises emitted by technological devices such as V2 rockets.
Abstract: Thomas Pynchon’s interest in music is audibly reflected in the rich intertextual environments of his works such as Gravity’s Rainbow , a novel which includes numerous allusions to musical pieces, descriptions of performances, and song lyrics. The latter stand out from prose narrative as they introduce new diegetic dimensions to the novel by offering playful commentary on its plot and characters. The present study examines the novel’s acoustic background, pointing to the formal structure of songs and its role in locating singing human voices in opposition to noises emitted by technological devices such as V2 rockets. A classification scheme shows how Pynchon’s formal experimentation juxtaposes written and oral variants of language, thus connecting songs to one of the novel’s thematic centers — problematics of order. This function of songs is examined in an episode of Vaslav Tchitcherine’s mission of promoting literacy among oral tribes of Kazakhstan, that serves as a commentary on the conventional character of writing systems and their ability to transform the poetic quality of language into a systematic structure.
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TL;DR: The authors investigates the fifteen-year evolution of the Soviet Union's strategy towards its multi-ethnic jurisdiction from the 'Lenin Constitution' of 1923 through to the consolidation of the 'Stalin Constitution' in 1936.
Abstract: Weighing in at over five hundred pages, this formidable work of scholarship investigates the fifteen-year evolution of the Soviet Union's strategy towards its multi-ethnic jurisdiction from the 'Lenin Constitution' of 1923 through to the consolidation of the 'Stalin Constitution' of 1936. The touchstone of such a complex and convoluted topic is the principle of what is now termed 'affirmative action': received wisdom holds that the Soviet Union adopted 'korenizatsiia' or 'indigenisation' in the 1920s as \"a prophylactic policy designed to defuse and prevent the development of nationalism\" (p. 126) by simultaneously favouring the minority nonRussian nationalities and penalising the majority Russian nation. In the course of the 1930s, however, affirmative action was abandoned and then reversed, initially as a 'Great Retreat' and most calamitously in a 'Great Terror' which reasserted Russian dominance and victimised the previously-privileged non-Russians to create a covert 'Russian Empire' legitimised by the meretricious doctrine of the 'Friendship of Peoples'.
89 citations
30 Jun 2019
TL;DR: In this article, a review of the literature is used as a way to frame and focus a research project, which can help to enhance conceptual sensitivity and make claims about the possible significance of a work.
Abstract: Q: Why do a review of the literature? 1. As a way to frame and focus a research project When research questions are formed without sustained reference to the literature, the study is likely to be marred by 1. Naïve research instruments that lack conceptual underpinnings 2. Problems with sense-making because the researcher is not alert to themes that may be identifiable 3. Problems with claims-making because the researcher lacks the knowledge to state its significance for theory, policy or practice. Knowledge of the literature can help: 1. Tighten research questions 2. Enhance conceptual sensitivity 3. Provide a source for making comparisons 4. Provide a cache of descriptive data 5. Provide questions for initial observations and interviews 6. Stimulate questions during the analysis 7. Suggest areas for theoretical sampling 8. Confirm findings, or, findings can be used to show where current literature is incorrect, simplistic, or partial 9. Model ways of making claims about the possible significance of your work
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TL;DR: The Post-Holocaust Dialogues the authors is a collection of 12 essays dealing with the Holocaust written by Katz and Katz's National Jewish Book Award-winning study, the authors, which identifies the main issues in the contemporary Jewish intellectual universe and outlines a larger, more synthetic understanding of contemporary Jewish existence.
Abstract: "[Of] the 12 well-crafted essays in this volume...the most useful are those dealing with the Holocaust." -Choice "Especially recommended for college-level students of Jewish history and culture." --The Bookwatch This is a critical exploration of the most repercussive topics in modern Jewish history and thought. A sequel to Katz's National Jewish Book Award-winning study, Post-Holocaust Dialogues, this book identifies the main issues in the contemporary Jewish intellectual universe and outlines a larger, more synthetic understanding of contemporary Jewish existence.
10 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, Pynchon-written songs, integration of Italian opera, instances of harmonic performance, dialogue with Plato's Republic and Benjamin Franklin's glass armonica performance are investigated.
Abstract: Through Pynchon-written songs, integration of Italian opera, instances of harmonic performance, dialogue with Plato’s Republic and Benjamin Franklin’s glass armonica performance, Mason & Dixon extends, elaborates, and investigates Pynchon’s own standard musical practices. Pynchon’s investigation of the domestic, political, and theoretical dimensions of musical harmony in colonial America provides the focus for the novel’s historical, political, and aesthetic critique. Extending Pynchon’s career-long engagement with musical forms and cultures to unique levels of philosophical abstraction, in Mason & Dixon ’s consideration of the “inherent Vice” of harmony, Pynchon ultimately criticizes the tendency in his own fiction for characters and narrators to conceive of music in terms that rely on the tenuous and affective communal potentials of harmony.
7 citations
Book•
04 Oct 2000
TL;DR: The Journal of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, 1763-1768 is a posthumous publication based on original manuscript originally written by Charles Mason in 1763 and then edited by Jeremiah Dixon in 1768.
Abstract: Chapter 1 A Rightful Place Chapter 2 Career and Works Chapter 3 Critical Reception Chapter 4 Fact Chapter 5 Fact and Structure Chapter 6 Fact and Fiction Chapter 7 Fiction Chapter 8 Style and Substance Chapter 9 Critical Perspectives Chapter 10 Rank Chapter 11 Excerpts of The Journal of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, 1763-1768 Chapter 12 Index
5 citations
"Singing Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's ..." refers background in this paper
...Clerc, Charles....
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...Pynchon’s allusions to classical music are studied by David Cowart (1980), J. O. Tate (1983), and Charles Clerc (2000)....
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TL;DR: Pynchon's artistic manner as a whole defines itself more through dislocations of style than through consistencies, and any analysis of any "part," however characteristic it might be, risks an emphasis through isolation that the narrator of the passage above avoids.
Abstract: From the first paragraph of his first novel to the last paragraph of his latest one, poems, and particularly songs, make up a characteristic part of Pynchon's work: without them a reader's experience would not be at all the same. Even disallowing translations and quotations, his books average over a line of verse for every printed page. Yet since Pynchon's artistic manner as a whole defines itself more through dislocations of style than through consistencies, any analysis of any "part," however characteristic it might be, risks an emphasis through isolation that the narrator of the passage above avoids. His voice seems to be making urgent distinctions among the kinds of characters who populate Gravity's Rainbow and are concerned with its quest. By extension the distinction applies to V. and The Crying of Lot 49, to his other characters, his other Grails. But what is the distinction? Or, even more simply, what seems to be the narrator's relation to it? It is easier to say what that relation is not. Neither so ignoble as to jeer at terror and suffering, nor so haughty as to disdain security and pleasure, his manner describes and defines hierarchies, but is not at all described or defined by their terms. Neither is it defined by the values and assumptions of "balance" and "reason" implied by my rather Augustan summary of its effect, as the contrast between our styles demonstrates. While he sounds extremely sympathetic toward the nobles in the first sentence, then as if triumphing over them in the next two, the narrator seems on the whole to be outside or beyond or separate from the groups of characters he distinguishes. To me the passage is a characteristic enactment of the ways in which Pynchon achieves a relation to his subjects that is at the same time aloof and sympathetic, inclusive and analytic. The passage also, as I will try to show, describes the compositional principle behind his use of poetry.
5 citations
"Singing Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's ..." refers background in this paper
...The thematic value of music in Pynchon’s work is discussed in, for instance, Kathryn Hume and Thomas J. Knight (1985, 1986), William Vesterman (1975), and Carmen Pérez-Llantada Auría (1991)....
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...As William Vesterman points out, songs are a characteristic feature of Pynchon’s fiction — their absence would significantly remodel the reading experience (211)....
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...Vesterman, William....
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Book•
18 May 2012
TL;DR: The Historical Dictionary of Kazakhstan as discussed by the authors covers the history of Kazakhstan through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and a bibliography, with over 400 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture.
Abstract: The Historical Dictionary of Kazakhstan covers the history of Kazakhstan through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and a bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Kazakhstan.
4 citations