ellipses

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

Andrew Dinn writes:

>One other quirk I really fell for was his use of ellipsis in dialogue.
>Not as per Pynchon to denote a hiatus or trailing off in speech but
>rather indicating a non-verbal contribution to a dialogue e.g.
>
>    "Is this cuddling? Is what we're doing cuddling?"
>    "I think this satisfies standard cuddling criteria, yes."
>    "I thought so."
>    "...."
>    "You have a really bony pelvis, you know. See how it protudes"
>
>It's even better at the end of the scene
>
>    "Good Lord. Are you going to use it?"
>    "No. Too long. It's a long story, over forty pages. Also poorly typed."
>    "...."
>    "Stop that."
>    "...."
>    "Lenore, stop it. Not even remotely funny."
>    "...."
>    "...."
>    "Except how do you know so much about it."

Interestingly, this seems identical to the function of dialogue-embedded ellipsis in 
Manuel Puig's KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (1974).  Even more interestingly, 
Puig highlights the technique during  the lovemaking of Valentin and Molina, 
which if my nose still works  (speaking of TRISTRAM SHANDY), seems to be the 
activity lurking around in the snatch of dialogue quoted.

john m