A O I

[Samuel Moyer]

----- Original Message -----
From: "wood jim" <jim33wood at yahoo.com>

>
> The I**A** says I don't swing that way
> (homosexual)..."yours either."
>
> Of course he doesn't know what Oed's (Arnold Snarb's
> way is).
>
> He don't swing at all.
>
> He does ask her if she would like to be his Friend.
> She won't even look at the guy, and she says, "I guess
> not." Poor Oed. Or maybe I'm being too soft on her?
> He does say that she doesn't even know his name. She
> hasn't bothered to ask.
>

Just going back trying to see what we have in the Archives on Inamorato
Anonymous and wanted to make a correction...

Oedipa doesn't say "I guess not," but rather, "I don't know," she thought
she'd better say.

Let me put the context down with it - perhaps even stir a little debate as
to what Oedipa was thinking at the time.

"I use the US MAil because I was never taught any different," she pleaded.
"But I'm not your enemy.  I don't want to be."
"What about my friend?" He came spinning around on the stool to face her
again.  "You want to be that Arnold?"
"I don't know," she thought she'd better say.
He looked at her, blank.  "What do you know?" (112)


Lots of possibilities, I think, for why Oedipa chose her response... or for
why he asked the question, spinning to face her, as he did.  Was he being
short with her, hey kid, you're bugging me... what do you want?  or was he
looking for a friend... another chance at love, friendship?  Maybe she
didn't know what he meant... maybe she was afraid to say yes... maybe she is
just being honest... she doesn't know... she wants answers about the horn.

Well, later in the book she calls back for him... she turns to him for an
answer (176).

Anyway, what do you all think?

Sam


> She does take a quick look in his eyes' Void.
> He tells her is a member of IA,  he says an
> inamorat-O--a man Iguess, is somebody  in love.
>
> He says he kicked the habit, addiction young, he's
> kicked love. He is an isolate. Whatsmore, the IA
> communicate via an answering service. Two IA never
> meet twice. Once they meet, say if one supports
> another in a time of need, they never meet again.
>
> This is exactly what happens to Oed. The IA takes off.
>
>
> But first we here a tale of the founder.
>
> BTW, anyone have anything bibliographical  on:
> the building of the Boeing manufacturing plant north
> of Seattle, Washington. The plant itself, the culture
> and religion of the people who built it , and the
> ethics of the people involved  in the building,  the
> relationship between religion, culture, philosophy,
> and ethics
> in the plant's development and construction.
>
> After the War and when new info tech was introduced
> and as general rule of hatchetman management, there
> were huge lay-offs at Boeing and so this tale is not
> so absurd.
>
> Even the eschatalogical stuff.
>
> He decides to tkae Brody.
> But first, perverse, he takes an add out in the LA
> Times. He's not expecting to hear from suicides, a
> habit of his training, he wants vailidating input.
> A bum brings him the letters from the suicides, but
> none of them provide input to convince him that he
> should not take the Dive. He makes a list--pro and
> con, he simply can't make a decision as quick as the
> I-Beam machine, defiant, but the monk burning in the
> AP photo inspires him, not to protest the War, the war
> in Vietnam, but to light himself on fire. This is,
> after all, a man that survived the Normany hedgerows,
> not to mention post war AMerica. But, agreeing with
> Robert afterall, the ambivilance, the stamps, the
> underworld, not religion (orthodos or corporate) saved
> him.
>
>
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