MDMD (1)--Wicks

[Thomas Vieth]

Isn't it plain and simple just the same wacky name he used in GR before? 
God, I love it. This is rich teaching material for psychology classes on 
how human beings squeeze as much info as possible out of any given 
source material!

Thomas Vieth
Down with Triolahidi
Long live Hollerodullyo


----Original Message Follows----
Date:	Mon, 9 Jun 1997 23:40:16 -0500 (CDT)
To:	pynchon-l at waste.org
From:	amazing at mail.utexas.edu (dennis grace)
Subject: MDMD (1)--Wicks
Paul smoaks:
>Gershom B. sez:
>
>So, is Rv. Cola rilly a straw? Well, it could mean the story is hollow, 
or
>maybe he wears pinstriped suits. O-or it could be that his top bends
>around a-la those cute twisty straws from minute maid cardboard drink
>containers. Ah memories...
>
>>>>>This is not to say, is it, that the Revd. is simply a straw man?
>If so, who knocks him down?
Bravo, sirs.  What wicks cherry coke?  Why, of course, it's a straw, 
man.
This image set works on a few levels.  First, a straw man (more in the
poetic sense than the rhetorical sense:  "We are the hollow men, yada 
yada
yada.") works in Wicks' case:  he's a false level, an imaginary 
narrative
wall, and as a fictional character, he's naturally hollow.  Also, 
however, a
straw operates as a conduit, a small pipe (ceci n'est pas une 
pipe--sorry,
surreal flashback), a device through which material is 
transmitted--y'know:
a narrator.
Of course, the Rev's name works on other symbolic levels.  He's a wick 
(or
many wicks), a potentially illuminative device, but not until it's lit.
LeSpark, natch, is the thing what lights the wicks.  Unfortunately, 
cherry
coke (an anachronism, to the best of my knowledge--though I'd love to 
hear
any non-20th century version of "cherry coke" anyone can come up with) 
isn't
exactly lamp oil, nor, looking to other possible ways to get lit, is 
cherry
coke an inebriant.  
Then again, wicks only burn with fuel, and "coke" is a fuel--a purified 
coal
used in smelting--but certainly not a lamp fuel and not a good source of
light (providing only a smoky dull glow).  From that perspective, cherry
more-or-less adequately describes the light (yeah, I know, big 
stretch--damn
there goes the groin) you get from burning coke.  (It would be rilly
gloriously ironic if "cherry" turned out to be an industrial grade of 
coke,
or somesuch.
dgg 
PS--I can't find that passage about the cheap soap--was that after 
chapter
four?--the soap that makes a bigger mess when applied.  Similar to 
lighting
coke to provide light, as it were.
_____________________________
Dennis Grace
University of Texas at Austin
English Department
Recovering Medievalist
The pursuit of truth, not of facts, is the business of fiction.
                                            --Oakley Hall



---------------------------------------------------------
Get Your *Web-Based* Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
---------------------------------------------------------