Pynchon's songs

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

Dan Schmidt suggests:
"Here's the rhythm I hear for "The Sanjak of Novi Pazar," by the way
(accented syllables are in caps):
 
1     +    2   +    3       +      4  +
NO    -bo      -dy  KNOWS   where     it
IS    on   the MAP
WHO   ev       -er  THOUGHT it        could
CAUSE such a   FLAP
 
etc.  Does that sound right to people?  Maybe I'm going overboard, but
I think having an idea of how the songs sound is important.  You think
I'm being pedantic now, wait until we get to Rossini vs. Beethoven!"

It *does* sound right, though there may be other ways of scanning that.
I do agree that how the songs sound is important, especially so when
P. seems to be imitating the scansion of particular songs.  This probably
happens more often than I realize when the song source is obscure, but
it's quite overt in some cases.

At any event, I can hum "I'm the fellow who' having other people's fantasies"!

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)