SLSL "assembly line"

[Paul Mackin]

"Gone native." There was another similar sounding phase that was 
sometimes applied to servicemen (by other servicemen) back in WW II. The 
phrase was "going Asiatic" It meant something that could happen to you 
when you had been too long in far away places, away from the normal 
constraints of home. It had a mild connotation of being crazy or at 
least actiing that way--striking for a section 8 perhaps. Kurtz 
definitely had gone Asiatic. Dunno if 'going Asiatic' could be construed 
to apply to Lardass.

Whether 'escaping work details for three years' is an exaggeration or 
not depends on whether TSR is best read as realism or something else. I 
started out on this particular go around reading the story as 
not-very-plausible realism but am no longer satisfied with that. I'm 
coming around to seeing it as either fantasy or fairytale (not science 
fiction). Buttercup is either a fairy princess or a witch. She's not a 
normal cute blond college girl of the 50s, as I think Doug pointed out. 
I'm not really expecting anyone to take the fairytale idea totally at 
face value. It's admittedly such a diluted sort of fairytale and I can't 
believe Pynchon conceived it as such. Not consciously. But as fairytale 
it needs to be, to coin a term, FORCE READ.

P.


William Zantzinger wrote:

>"The death detail worked precisely, efficiently, like
>  an assembly line.  Every once in a while one of the
>  offloaders would turn aside to vomit, but the work
>  flowed on smoothly. Levine and Douglas sat watching
>  them while the sky got darker, losing more of the
>sun
>  which nobody could see." (44)
>
>And 
>
>"After a while..." (bottom of page 37)
>
>"Sorry, sir," Levine called after him. And then more
>quietly, "God Rizzo, did you see that?" 
>Rizzo laughed. "war is hell," he said ungraciously.
>(37-38)
>
>Levine seems to be wowed by the combination of the
>"two silver bars" and the ragged and filthy khakis. 
>
>Somehow, but we are not told how, Levine has managed
>to avoid work detail for three years. Three years!
>That's damn near impossible. Maybe he was in prison
>for a long time. We're not told. Could the narrator be
>exaggerating?  We can't be sure. This is another flaw
>in the story as far as I can tell. In any event,
>Levine doesn't show much respect for his superiors,
>the chain of command, organization on base. He's "gone
>native" (this is an important phrase and worth talking
>about…it may have been coined during British rule over
>India, Raj,  (1757-1947) and it has all sorts of
>meanings…can be used as a negative or positive…can be
>used when talking specifically about language or
>people in military service…etc…but I'll note that it
>is a phrase that Pynchon uses in his first published
>story, MMV and in that story he references Conrad's
>"Heart Of Darkness."  Conrad is more influential here
>than anyone else, including Hemingway-Conrad's
>influence is present throughout Pynchon's oeuvre ).
>The narrator provides a particular and detailed
>description of Levine's  "Gone Native" conduct and
>demeanor. Although Levine has given up Jazz for
>Hillbilly, and so on, his attitude and his behavior
>are still that of a "college sophomore." Not only does
>he show little or no respect for his superiors, the
>chain of command, the organization, he deliberately
>and persistently exasperates the people he works with,
>i.e., his encounter with Pierce (33).  
>
>At the bottom of page 43 (an important paragraph)  we
>get the merging of Levine's college life and army
>life. He heads down to the pier with Douglas. 
>
>Doug notes that this passage reminded him of the
>Luddite essay. 
>
>"The death detail worked precisely, efficiently, like
>  an assembly line.  Every once in a while one of the
>  offloaders would turn aside to vomit, but the work
>  flowed on smoothly. Levine and Douglas sat watching
>  them while the sky got darker, losing more of the
>sun
>  which nobody could see." (44)
>
>Reminded me of the Homer's Iliad, of Thucydies, of his
>Peloponnesian War and specifically, the funeral
>oration of Pericles, which has always reminded me of
>Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, but after 9-11, reminds
>me of a garbage dump in New Jersey. 
>
>Anyway, what happens at the pier  is that an old
>master sergeant comes up to Levine and Douglas and
>talks about Korea and then we get this: 
>
>"Despite its machine-like efficiency the operation had
>a certain air of informality: hardly anyone wore hats,
>a colonel or a major would stop to chat with the
>corpsmen. "Like combat," the sergeant said. "All the
>rules are out. Hell, who needs 'em anyway." 
>
>The next day, Levine goes down to the pier and goes
>out to harvest the dead. 
>Then he plows Little Buttercup. 
>
>Yes! Very funny this terrible thing is. A man that is
>born falls into a dream like a man that falls into the
>sea. If he tries to climb out into the air as
>inexperienced people endeavor to do, he drowns--nicht
>wahr? ... No! I tell you! The way is to the
>destructive element submit yourself, and with the
>exertion of your hands and feet in the water make the
>deep, deep sea keep you up. So if you ask me--how to
>be? 
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