SLSL "TSR" "your last summary"

[William Zantzinger]

--- pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com> wrote:
> "It's only been a couple of weeks since your last
> summary, hasn't it," the clerk said. (29)
> 
> Dugan may refer to "summary court-martial", part of
> the US military justice system.

Yup. 

 
> "Don't tell me they're going to put me in jail. Not
> again." (29)
> 
> Buried beneath Levine's sloth and fat may lurk an 
> anger management problem; he drinks a bit and he
> seems prone to brawling (judging from the scene
later in the story when Nathan knocks out Picnic with
a "wild
> roundhouse").

I read it differently. The punch scene is quite
muddled. Who is it that swings? Is it Lardass or is it
Baxter? It reads like a movie. The army men  go into a
crowded college bar on a Friday night and get in a
fight.

 But there is something twisted and unclear about the
scene and I guess it's deliberate. Benny and Lardass
enter the bar and get a *glimpse* of Baxter. Baxter is
trying to make a girl (this is probably Little
Buttercup) whoose date is already too drunk to fight
about it. 

Brief discussion of Levine's beer belly and stomach
and how he feels after his work that day. Note that
Picnic asks the type of question that would normally
be asked by Rizzo, the loquacious Company intellectual
(Levine and Rizzo are "college brothers" and they
enjoy a certain indentification and affinity).   

Picnic (as Rizzo's double) asks, 

"Not to sound like Rizzo or anything...but what's the
matter, Nathan? Where is the old Sgt Bilko type
soldier we used to know and love? Is the past
beginning to close in on you or on you on the verge of
an intellectual crisis or what?" 

Nathan and Picnic sit and watch the college kids who
are in turn looking at **It** as something unusual and
nothing they had ever or would ever wnat to be a part
of.

Little Buttercup comes over trying to play spot the
quote. Remember that Nathan suggested that she play
that with Rizzo, but Rizzo is not there, Picnic is
there and perhaps he is "double" enough for her to
think he is Rizzo. 
 

Lavine knows a better game. 

She tells Levine that her date was ill and had to go
home. 

They make a date. 

An adolescent-looking rebel (her drunk date)  comes
over and puts his arm around little buttercup and
spills Picnic's beer. 

Picnic suggests they fight. 

Baxer has been evesdropping. 

The punch. 

But who did the punching? 

Was it Baxter or Levine? 

If it was Baxter and he knocked out Picnic did he also
knock out Rizzo? 

Of course Levine gets the girl. 

Baxter can't get the college crap. He's not too smart.

Lardass is smart and with Picnic and Rizzo out cold
(Rizzo is out of it in the morning when Lazy Levine
gets up at 7am and volunteers to work collecting
bodies. 

Got to harvest to plow. The Little Buttercup wants a
plowboy, he doesn't have to work too hard, but he's
got to get out there and work.  Lot of assbackwardness
and twisty turns in this story. Typical Pynchon. 


> 
> I don't find Levine a very attractive character, all
> things considered, but understandable.  He's "inert"
> on first view, he loves military life and seems
> attracted to it as a career (US Army joke:  Why are
> lifers like maggots?  Because they eat shit and
> bother
> people),  

Not sure he's all that serious about being a lifer. He
likes to mess with people. 


e's numb to the death (and life,
> Buttercup
> for example) that surrounds him, he seems to sense
> that some change is possible for him, that he might
> be
> able to move out of his situation (where he seems as
> trapped and lost as that "cockroach following some
> private maze across the floor"), then he falls
> asleep
> at the end of the story. The connection to Benny
> Profane having learned nothing by the end of V.
> seems
> apt.  Trapped in a System of which he is barely
> aware
> and against which struggle is futile -- again, in
> his
> first published story, Pynchon launches a theme to
> which he will return again and again....
> 
> -Doug
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> =====
> <http://www.pynchonoid.blogspot.com/>
> 
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