VV(11): Fingernails

[Terrance]

jbor wrote:
> 
> I was struck also by the fact that Benny doesn't appear to recognise Rachel,
> but of course he probably isn't looking at her face when she walks into the
> office at 216.7, and then only has a back view when she proceeds on into
> "her country", i.e. the country of the employed, which is a nice touch on
> Pynchon's part. Benny pretty soon registers who she is I think, the lust and
> terror intermingling then, though it is slightly off-putting at first read.
> 
> best

He sure does, he remembers her when he thinks of Fina, his
being her RC rosary, and now a boy for a Jewish mother--R is
Jewish, he knows it from their history, but he sees her come
right in on that rail and only sees a machine girl. At that
moment when he first enters the employment office and he
sees her, she walks right out of her, waving, as Dave says,
like an amusement, Benny has that erection, that Moon
erection, his time/space is also impregnated with that "dust
bowl family," Depression time, but strangely, even though he
is now closer to her, it subsides, this after he sees
nothing but a new "extemporized daydream."