Silly observation

[Bonnie Surfus (ENG)]

On Fri, 21 Jul 1995, David L. Pelovitz wrote:

> Tim Ware wrote:
> 
> > >And he and Rachel do have sex.
> > 
> > Do they?  This is reminiscent of the "deaths in GR" controversy.  It 
> > isn't really clear whether or not they have sex (p. 359).  "McClintic ame 
> > in and found them like that, holding together until now and again one or 
> > the other lost balance and made tiny staggers to compensate.  Underground 
> > garage for a dancing-floor.  So they dance all over the cities."  They 
> > *probably* do, but...
> >
> True, my mistake.  In that scene, there is no evidence any coitus
> occurs.  But Benny and Rachel do becomea couple (he
> even comes to refer to her as "his" girl).  All of which
> suiggests they enter a sexual relationship, but Ican't
> offer any absolute proof beyond that.
> 
> > Also, though I appreciate the harmonic motion angle, the successive 
> > generations of characters and the two first meetings seem to me 
> > qualitatively different.  
> > 
> > The second meeting shows that Benny is a lot more excited about potential 
> > sex than kinetic sex, if I may abuse your analysis.
> 
> The Other side of the whole harmonic thing is that it, like
> most science in Pynchon, is subject to a certain level of
> artisitic license.  After all, the chapters do not obey
> a direct back an forth swing between the two states.
> And Benny does seem to learn despite his denials.


This "artistic license" has a thematic strength that is, I believe, 
purposeful and, dare I say, intentional./

-Bonnie

> > During the sequence where he 
first meets Rachel, he 
goes > for a ride in her MG.  During this ride, he finds himself
> terrified by her driving and watching "the not quite
> simple and not quite harmonic motion of her breast".
> That's sort of how I see the whole thing.  Sex and fear
> of sex are always just a delta-t apart.  And the movement
> of energy between the two is nearly harmonic, but there
> is always the possibility of an aberration.
> 
> After all, if the physics of Pynchon is perfectly
> Newtonian, the rocket has to land at the end of
> Gravity's rainbow, but it hasn't yet.

I believe it lands at the space between the ending and the beginning of 
the text-just another bomb.
I think I believe this-still working with it.

-Bonnie

> > David Pelovitz- 
PELOVTZD at Acfcluster.nyu.edu > 
>