The C-Word, et cetera

[Henry M]

A-and how about the fact that they are in love, and yet she is 
affianced to another. We are sympathetic with Roger, but the 
Beaver doesn't seem like such a bad sort, really. What are we to make 
of there being no jealousy anywhere in Mr. P's works?

 On 18 Jan 97 at 9:16, Skip Wolfe wrote:

> I think one interesting thing about the Roger/Jessica passages here
> is the contrast between what is essentially a cute,
> boy-meets-girl-they-fall-in-love story, and the actual sexual and
> linguistic content.  We sort of expect hand-holding, the timid first
> kiss, that kind of thing, but what we get is coming, cocks & cunts,
> and fingers up the asshole.  In a tenderly-described scene where we
> would expect to see Roger stroking Jessica's hair while she falls
> asleep we get cunnilingus instead.  This has always struck me, but I
> haven't figured out quite why, exactly.  Maybe we're so used to
> seeing sex and love being portrayed as separate, at most
> casually-related, entities, that we're shocked when we see them so
> inextricably joined -- the way we're taught they should be.
> 
> And what about, "Whenever it happens, though, the light always gets
> very red for them."??  This doesn't sound very Pynchonesque to me --
> more like something Hemingway would have dropped in there and, when
> asked about it, said was part of the story's metaphysics.  I suppose
> it could refer  to red-shift of light, too -- something (the
> happiness of their doomed, transitory wartime interlude?) receding
> from them at high speed.
> 
>  Skip
> 

Keep cool, but care. -- TRP
Moderation in moderation. -- Husky Mariner

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