lies back and takes it

[Paul Mackin]

Jane Sweet wrote: (cuts)

>
> He rejects Paola, Fina, now Mafia. What's up with Benny.
> Doesn't he want to get any?
> What is it about Rachel that's different? A true wind up
> girl?

Benny and Sphere may be less representatives of true male lack of
religiion when satisfaction of carnal appetites is at stake and more in
the literary  and movie tradition of not taking random advantage of low
status women or even spoiled rich girls who may not quite know what they
are doing. It was the code of behavior  practiced by, say,  Humphrey
Bogart with regard to the dimwitted  little sister in "The Big Sleep"
and why Jimmy Stewart did not have sex with the very drunk and willing
Katherine Hepburn in "The Philadelphia Story."  (there are some things a
gentleman doesn't do sez Jimmy and Frank Sinatra too in a remake) It's
possibly  akin to what young Pynchon might have felt  set he himself
apart from the Crew,  the Pig Bodines and the college kids.  Even Mafia
might qualify for immune status from what  certainly would not have been
exploitation.  If Rachel does not qaulify (I don't quite remember)--well
it's the exception that tests the rule. Or maybe it's true love . . .
.There is such a thing, Jane dear.

                                                    P.