MDMD(6): . . . and perhaps she will behave (teeny spoiler)

Fri Oct 19 03:26:13 CDT 2001

Howdy

(teeny weeny spoiler herein)

Wonderful little post of the sort I value most -- the chasing down of
one of P's tasty little factoids. Fic-toids?  They season the soup.

We'll find farther on that Pynchon is in fact making a joke about the
American tomato-and-sugar based condiment variously styl'd ketchup or
catsup. Watch how this jest leaps across chapters to cap the entire
first section of the book.

"Can we allow this?" We must. We shall!

Regards and a tip of the hat to all
Mark

--- Michel Ryckx <michel.ryckx at freebel.net> wrote:

<HR>
<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>
"Strike her upon the Bottom [. . .] and perhaps she will behave."
(79.26-27)
"Ketjap" is soy sauce.  It is always very fluid, as most of you
will know.  Two notes on this joke:
(1) It is very seldom used directly on the table. One uses it in the
kitchen.  The use on Mutton in the Vroom dining room is not very
appropriate. 
But I guess our Author needed this pun in order to be able to say:
 (2)  "Strike her upon the Bottom", for he knows any American
will
associate it with the sweet tomato sauce in long-necked bottles. 
They phrase is funny, but a bit disappointing (for me, that is). 
The use of his research is not perfect in this case.  Can we allow
this?
This is from: <a
href="http://www.xs4all.nl/~margjos/nlketjap.htm">http://www.xs4all.nl/~margjos/nlketjap.htm</a>
 "Soy sauce is made from fermented soy beans, with added spices.
There
are many types and within the same type there are big differences in
between
the different brands. Usage: In marinates [sic], sauces, stew and
soup."
and from <a href="http://www.balivision.com/article/Food and
Spices,.htm">http://www.balivision.com/article/Food
and Spices,.htm</a>
 "The other principal spice for cooked food [in Bali] has the
confusing
(to a Westerner) name of "kecap", pronounced "ketchap."   But
"kecap" is what we call "soy sauce," not our familiar tomato sauce. It
comes either sweet, "kecap manis", or sour, "kecap asem." Although
there
are hundreds of spices used in Balinese cooking, everyday food is often
quite simple. "
<a
href="http://thestar.com.my/kuali/recipes/mutton.html">http://thestar.com.my/kuali/recipes/mutton.html</a>
has some recipes with lengkua in it.  It is ginger root.
Michel.</html>

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