Red & Jack

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

DudiousMax at aol.com wrote:

> Yo,
>            Well here we are only 10% of our way into GR and there is a
> sequence that mentions "Red" Malcolm, who may not stand for Orson Welles, but
> seems to stand for Malcolm X; and Jack Kennedy, the Ambassador's kid, who was
> known to be a strong swimmer, and who seems to stand for the historical JFK.
> What do they have in common?  They were each assassinated.  "And only one
> president, and one assassin, and one election."  And somehow, without saying,
> "HEY, LOOK AT THIS," TRP has put political assassination out there for us to
> deal with.  Not just in the abstract, but the most American of events, the
> Presidential assassination.  And not the historical type of Abraham Lincoln;
> but the most recent one that is fresh in each of our consciousnesses.  Not
> only Presidential assassination, but (in Malcolm X) the assassination of a
> disturbing political figure.  And later in the text he will have a resort for
> assassins.  So we should keep this category in mind.  It is now "in play" in
> the text.  Assassination, which is no shit.  But what do I know?  I'm only...
>                                                                         Max

And we will see these three ( Red, X, and Slothrop) together again. History and
Fiction, remember those discussions during MDMD and VLVL? Right now, the shoe
shine boy and the strong swimmer are, well, where are they? When are they? And
don't give me that Pynchon is confused stuff. He's moving it around, improvising,
like, Long Island to Berkshire, New York to Boston, 39 to 40, 40's to 70's. Like
Desolation Row,

Mason’s at the Friday Hangings
Frenesi’s Going Down
The Sailor’s Grave is full of sailors
Pig Bodine is back in town
Here comes Ronald RayGun
They’ve got him in a trance
One hand is tied to V.’s Balloon
The other is in his pants
And the riot squads they’re restless
They need some place to go
As Brock and I look out tonight
on desolation row

Fina, she seems so easy
“Benny, I’m Cherry,” she smiles
and puts her hand in her back pocket
Hector Zuniga style
And in comes Stencil, he’s moaning
“Stencil’s In Love with V-2”
and Slothrop says, “your in the wrong book my friend,
 I’m getting out with you”
And the only sound that’s left
After the Auctioneer Clears His Throat
Is Zoyd Wheeler sweeping glass
>From desolation row

Now the Thanatoids are waking
Now everybody sing
Hansel and Gretel are baking
And Kong is Lord and King
All except for DL and Takeshi
And Eliot’s broken drain
Everyone is making love
Or else expecting rain.
But The Weather Will Not Change
As above, so below
Where Profane and Angel Make A Myth
For desolation row.

All these people that I mention
Yes, I know them, they’re quite lame
I had to rearrange their faces
And give them all another name