SLSL Double plowing

[William Zantzinger]

--- William Zantzinger <williamzantzinger at yahoo.com>
wrote:
> If Baxter is trying to pick up the little buttercup,
> her date being too drunk to fight about it, and if
> he is the one that swings and knocks out Picnic
> (doubling as Rizzo) so that there is only one girl
and two guys--Levine (the "plowboy" from the Bronx)
and
> Baxter (the Farmboy from Pennsylvania). Both get
laid. Levine plows little buttercup in the swamp shack
while the frogs sing. And Baxter? Who does Baxter
plow? 



Pynchon's use of doubles and so-called "mappings onto"
has fascinated critics. Just checking the archives, I
noticed that there is quite a lot in there on this and
I think one of your former list participants has a web
page up on Pynchon's doubles. Anyway, Levine is a
Plowboy. So says Rizzo, a college graduate and the
Company Intellectual when he and Levine chat with the
little blonde co-ed, Little Buttercup.  Before he
joined the army, Levine was at City. At City, certain
co-eds noted that Levine had a plowboy physique.
Levine is also a college graduate and he has the
highest IQ in the battalion. While Levine rejects his
past and his education and refuses to be classed with
the intellectuals, he does participate in long
intellectual discussions with Rizzo and Picnic. While
Levine reads whore books, Rizzo reads highbrow stuff
and does most of the talking at these bull sessions.
Rizzo maps onto Levine as the intellectual. Levine is
from the Bronx. He may have a plowboy's physique and
he may have plowed a few co-eds at City, but there
hasn't been a farm large enough to plow in the Bronx
for at least a hundred years. Levine is no farmboy.
The farmboy or farm kid in the story is Baxter. Baxter
doesn't think a college education matters. He thinks
experience is more important. So, Baxter maps onto
Levine as the farm kid/plowboy. However, if a plowboy
is a person that plows co-eds, Baxter is not a plowboy
because he's a virgin. As a virgin, I think he the
double of the little blond co-ed or Little Buttercup.
The narrator, typical of Pynchon's narrators, does not
provide "traditional" detailed descriptions of
characters. For instance,  Levine is described as an
inert figure. We are never told what color eyes any of
the characters have or if they have facial hair or
freckles or big ears. Does Levine have a big nose?
Does Rizzo have smart hands? Is Levine a red head? Is
Picnic bald? 
Baxter is blonde. He's a little blonde farm kid.
Little Buttercup is also blonde. Like Little
Buttercup, Baxter doesn't much like the Cajuns. Like
her, he has sex, or so he says, on the night that the
frogs chant. The bar "fight" scene is a bit muddled.
Reading that scene that scene, I got confused. I read
it again and I think that P might be playing with
doubles in that scene. 

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