The visibility today was unlimited, the Lake sparkling with a million highlights, the little electric launches and gondolas, the crowds in the plazas adjoining the mammoth exhibition buildings, the whiteness of the place nearly unbearable. . . .
* * * * * * * * * *
"The visibility today was unlimited"
Lew Basnight has a nearly paranormal ability to perceive his surroundings, as noted by Nate Privett when he first encountered Lew. Today he is up in the Inconvenience and nothing in the Fair can escape his vision, even, possibly, past the limits of the real. "Unlimited" seems pretty specific here. Just try to keep in mind Basnight's extra-sensory perceptive abilities and Pynchon's historical use of the term "inconvenience." By perceiving the world as it truly is, and not limiting what we see to what we desire, the inconvenient truth of it all will be exposed.
"the Lake sparkling with a million highlights"
The Lake being Lake Michigan (that's for my fellow West Coasters whose knowledge of U.S. geography really shits the bed east of the Rockies). This is the first mention of light and electricity in this opening line. The lake shines with reflected light. But the light only reveals the surface of the lake. Bodies of water beneath the surface are generally metaphors for the subconscious, or that which remains hidden from view. Perhaps a knowing, winking paradox at the unlimited visibility, or just a reminder that we are often blinded by that which we see, believing what is visible is the extent of what is actually there.
"the little electric launches and gondolas"
Next Pynchon mentions the "electric launches," reminding us of the electricity illuminating much of the fair at night. During the day, the sun makes everything sparkle, allows us to visualize our surroundings. But now, with electricity, the night has also been harnessed in much the same way. Better, stronger, more clear than lanterns and torches. It is a vehicle, as a launch or a gondola, to move us more easily through our surroundings. Perhaps much like a balloon through the air moving us across vast distances, through time and space. Technology as a means of propelling evolution forward faster and faster.
"the crowds in the plazas adjoining the mammoth exhibition buildings"
After that, crowds in the areas between the buildings, flowing to and fro, as a current might. The plazas being mere conduits for people to pass from experience to experience, and the experiences within the pavilions meaning nothing without the people passing through to light them up, to acknowledge them, to marvel at them, to illuminate them.
"the whiteness of the place nearly unbearable"
And finally, the unbearable whiteness which can be read as the new and flashy brightness of the electric light's ability to expose what was previously hidden, or to, you know, make visibility unlimited. Of course there is the other way to read the unbearable whiteness which I've covered earlier in the sections with Miles and Lindsay's foray into the fringes of the Fair.
". . . ."
Always an odd bit of punctuation for me but here it seems to say, "And so many other things I could mention, going on and on, being that visibility was unlimited, but I shall choose to stop here by adding this fourth period. Done!
No comments:
Post a Comment