GW, hepcat

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

Now that's a good question fer sure, Vaska. Why indeed this *goof*?
Obviously I don't know.  I was just responding to J.Siegel's ignorant
(not a gratuitous insult, but a literal obs.--since he hasn't read the book) 
claim that it was an *ignorant error*.  It just seems clear to any thoughtful reading of the 
scene that there is some subtle commentary woven into the style of GW's
 persona.GW uses all sorts of terms and names in a silly or awkward
 way--the pet names for Martha, the use of *my man* (which we
 can easily hear w/ an awkward street inflection, ma mayn Gershom).
  The messuginah mistake fits into this idea of quick portraiture, or maybe
 it's just an error.  The point is, like all great writing, Pynchon's work
 needs to be read and thought through, with lots of options considered,
 before being dissed.

john m
***********************
Vaska writes:
>
>John, you describe that scene with such exquisite feel for nuance, including
>the "middlin' foolishness" bit, that your message is a joy to read.  So I'll
>admit it now: maybe I'm just irrationally stubborn -- always a possibility
>with a Taurus -- but both the first and the second time 'round I scratched
>my head and thought: is P. relying on our ability to spot GW's goof with a
>Yiddish term to signal any of this to us?  Is that why it's there?  
>
>A-and, as I've said before [twice dammit], even if it's a *Pynchon* goof, it
>ain't the end of the world.  It ain't, and it ain't and it ain't.  
>
>Vaska, that stubborn old cow of a reader
>
>Mascaro wrote:
>>Good thought, Vaska, but the levels of qualification in *not quite the
>> incompetent fool* seem, IMO, to leave lots of room for some middlin'
>> foolishness.  The whole scene bet. GW and his main man Gershom is
>> marked by a really deft balance of affection and misunderstanding
>> between the two,  Gershom is clearly the *hipper* of the two, the more alert,
>> but he  treats the Cunnel not with scorn, rather, tolerance. 
>> It's a really interesting vignette which diminishes the master
>> without stereotyping the slave.
>>So I don't see any ruinous contradiction in the two 
>>views you mention, though Iwould state them more moderately.
>>
>>john m
>>********************
>>Vaska seeking the cowhorns of Dilemma
>>>
>>>So, on the one hand Pynchon writes: "If the Colonel serves not as a Focus of
>>>Sobriety, neither is he quite the incompetent Fool depicted in the London
>>>press."  Yet, on the other, he twists himself into a pretzel so that we may
>>>see GW as precisely one such?