Puppet-like women in M&D? (was childbirth crap)

[Paul Mackin]

Tod Mahony writes:
Seems like there were a couple of those "what do they want" passages, but
I took them more as demonstrations of M&D's (esp. Mason's) dope-headedness
regarding women.  

PM:  Could be. I heard the echo of Freud's famous question.

Tod: Another M&D woman who seems to buck the 'wimpy puppet' syndrome is the
character who, literally kidnapped from in front of a hot stove, ends up
escaping her Jesuit captors.  (Pardon my vagueness, my memory sucks.)  She
doesn't seem formulaic or puppet-like to me.  Then again, I was a little
confused as to whether she was a character in "The Ghastly Fop" or a
character in M&D.. 

 PM: Ah yes, the Captive Tale. I REPRESSES  thinking of Eliza, the Viudas novice
because of the cilice. Pynchon just can't resist it, can he? She WAS proud,
resented being called 'child' by the chief Jebbie. And brave--stepping into the cilice without a whimper (when had she ever refused an order), then escaping with Zhang.
Independent too in leaving Z when he started getting mushy. So very neat
the way she brings Brae and Thel together at long last before passing into the
main story and catching the eye of Dixon. Hope I'm not making this all up.

					P.