Fwd Re: The Small Rain, Low-Lands : A Few Questions

[rj]

Subject: 
         The Small Rain, Low-Lands : A Few Questions
   Date: 
         Thu, 13 Jan 2000 09:51:48 -0600
  From: 
         "Sergey Kuznetsov" <kuznet at col.ru>
     To: 
         "Pynchon_L" <pynchon-l at waste.org>


sk
> > DF think about to discuss the Midget Problem with Nerissa. What the hell is
> > Midget Problem? Dictionaries are silent, and AltaVista gives to me only XXX
> > pages...
> 

Sergey,

I'd hate for you to be misled, so here's my take ...

I doubt very much that Flange is considering sexual coitus with Nerissa
at this point of the story, even though Bodine has told him to go out
and get a "sitrep" (another military term meaning "a report on the
current situation") to "see if she's any good". Bodine is definitely, at
least jokingly, certainly chauvinistically, referring to sexual
possibilities with what they both imagine to be a gypsy girl. But as
Flange stumbles around the dump trying to locate her he is knocked
unconscious by a huge tower of snow tires which collapses on him, and
the section in question occurs immediately as he returns to
consciousness. I doubt he is anything other than disorientated by what
has happened when he comes to. His self-consciousness, acute at the best
of times, is exacerbated by the fact that she is not just a gypsy girl,
but also a "midget", or dwarf, neither of which are politically correct
terms any more. It occurs to him "insanely" that he should bring up the
"Midget Problem" as the next topic of conversation because that is the
very topic he realises he should avoid, in that he has automatically
perceived her physical stature as an abnormality or disability of some
kind, and to his acquired sense of morality and etiquette it would be
impolite to seem to notice her alterity, or "Otherness". (It's a sort of
abreactive reflex.)

It seems to me that the "Midget Problem" in this instance would refer to
such things as alcoholism, unemployment, poor living standards,
shortened life expectancies etc, which were problems associated with
this particular group of people. I think this would be a reasonably
well-known topic at the time -- I think after the gathering of a large
group of these little people for the highly-successful movie *The Wizard
of Oz*, and the subsequent lack of roles and employment opportunities
which proceeded from this, these problems were brought to the fore
somewhat, and had been publicised. 

Flange is not at all a voluptuary like Bodine, and certainly nowhere
near as brash. He has certain intellectual pretensions, and would not
make a move on any woman in such a forthright manner. He is altogether
too hung-up for that. Nerissa makes all the moves (conveniently so) for
Dennis.

Anyway, this is just a roundabout way of saying why not translate the
phrase just as is, the two terms together, capitalised as they are to
indicate that Flange is referring to a Social Issue of some description.
I don't believe that it's a phrase, or Issue, which has passed into
common parlance in the Western world since the 60s either.


I take the "bank run" to be the ridge, or horizon line of the dump. A
bank is a "raised shelf of ground"; a "run" can be a "continuous stretch
or spell or course". It's not a common phrase but the way I visualise
the scene is that as Flange descends into the heart of the dump he looks
up and sees this human figure silhouetted against the horizon line. It
is quite an eerie sight, and gives a sense of foreboding.

*****

Good luck with the translation, Sergey. I'd be interested in hearing
more details: publisher, what form the current edition will take, when
it is projected for release, any other of Mr P's works slated as future
projects etc.

best