VV(11): Davy Crockett

[Dave Monroe]

>From W.T. Llhamon, Jr., Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in 
the American 1950's (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990), 
Ch. 6, "'Keep Cool, But Care,'" pp. 193-251, here discussing V., p. 142 
("'What do you guys do?'") ...

"Profane's practice is not the purist's folklore.  Pynchon does not even say 
what Profane's tale is ....  But it uses motifs that trace back to 
nineteenth-century almanacs--specifically to their Davy Crockett stories and 
Davy's pet alligator.  Davy became legendary for housebreaking the 
wilderness, including its scariest amphibians." (228)

Turning to n. 17, pp. 263-4 adds ...

"Escaping rebellious French-Canadian soldiers in 1837, Davy rode his 'great 
pet Alligator, "Long Mississippi" up Niagara Falls.  The anonymous almanac 
writer narrating this tale bragged that the feat excited a salute of five 
hundred double-barreled rifles from Uncle Sam's watching forces for 'Colonel 
Crockett and his amphibious pet cataract navigator'"

Llhamon citing here Richard M. Dorson, Davy Crockett: American Comic Legend. 
  Rockland, NY: Spiral Press, 1939 ...
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