Fallopian

[Dave Monroe]

Thanks for all of this, and then some.  Just had in
mind that Catch-22's Yossarian might have been the
immediate inspiration for Pynchon's Armenian
characters (Mixolydian, Fallopian), at least insofar
as that "-ian" ending might now instantly, easily,
reliably, at least to Pynchon's likely readership,
signify "Armenian" (and note that "neat Armenian nose"
@ p. 54, but why "a certain affinity of his eyes for
green neon"?).  Cf. "O'-" = Irish, "Mac-" = Scottish,
"-ski" = Polish, et al.  "Prelapsarian," though,
indeed.  Oughtta start a pool here ...

--- Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net> wrote:
> Don't know if the suffixes -ian, -ean, -an, meaing
> pertaining to have any bearing  on Dave's point but
> possibly they were at least a part of his point.
> More importantly however wasn't it that at a
> certain point in time an Armenian persona or
> Armenian-like persona became emblematic of endurance
> under some force or circumstance in modern
> life--something to do with Armenians as an oppressed
> race, at the hands of the Turks.
> 
> Then there was the popular composer Khachaturian who
> I believe was in fact a Georgian not Armenian. Do
> Georgian names also tend to end in -ian?

Georgian, indeed, but the only other Georgian I can
think of is Eduard Shevardnadze, so ... but why
Armenian, indeed?  I'd honestly not much thought about
Fallopian before Sam pegged him as esp. significant
here, but, really ...

"'Has it ever occured to you, Oedipa, that somebody's
putting you on?  That this is all a hoax, amybe
something Inverarity set up before he died?'"
   "It had occured to her.  But like the thought that
someday she would have to die, Oedipa had been
steadfastly refusing to look at that possibility
directly, or in any but the most accidental of lights.
 'No,' she said, 'that's ridiculous.'" (Lot 49, Ch. 6,
p. 167)

Why Fallopian here?  Why the shift from seemingly
right-wing conspiracy theorist ("our more left-leaning
friends over in the Birch Society," p. 50) to
seemingly chic radical ("his modified Cuban ensemble,"
p. 168)?  Why ...

"'I knew you'd be different,' she said, 'Mike, because
everybody's been changing on me.  But it hadn't gone
as far as hating me.'
   "'Hating you.'  He shook his head and laughed."
(Lot 49, Ch. 6, p. 168)

Why "'I want to talk to this one,'" "a look
sympathetic, annoyed, perhaps also a little erotic,"
"He kept quiet while she talked, his expression slowly
changing to something she couldn't recognize," "mild
enough," "nothing if not sympathetic," "He smiled,"
"'Please don't be mad,'" "He shook his head and
laughed"?  "Different," indeed ...

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