SLSL "TSR" - climax, anti-climax

[pynchonoid]

"[...] there was in her eyes something that might have
been a dismayed and delayed acknowledgement that what
was hazarding this particular plowboy was deeper than
any problem of seasonal change or doubtful fertility,
precisely as he had recognized earlier that her
capacity to give involved nothing over or above the
list of enumerated wares:  scissors, watches, knives,
ribands, laces; and therefore he assumed toward her
that same nonchalant compassion which he felt for the
heroines of sex novels, or for the burned out but
impotent good guy rancher in a western."  (50)

This seems to be the high point of the story, the sex
that follows coming more as an anti-climax. 

"list of enumerated wares: scissors, watches, knives,
ribands, laces" -- enumerated where? 

Any significance to the use of this image to put
little Buttercup in a commercial/service context? She
was serving as a volunteer when Levine first met her.


"what was hazarding this particular plowboy"


tr.v. haz·ard·ed, haz·ard·ing, haz·ards 

1.	To expose to danger or harm. See Synonyms at
endanger.
2.	To venture (something); dare: hazard a guess. 

[Middle English hasard, dice game, from Old French,
possibly from Old Spanish azar, possibly from Arabic
az-zahr, the gaming die  : al-, the + zahr, gaming
die.]
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the
English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights
reserved.

hazarding

Hazard \Haz"ard\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hazarded; p. pr.
& vb. ? Hazarding.] [Cf. F. hazarder. See Hazard, n.]
1. To expose to the operation of chance; to put in
danger of loss or injury; to venture; to risk.
Men hazard nothing by a course of evangelical
obedience. --John Clarke.
He hazards his neck to the halter. --Fuller.
2. To venture to incur, or bring on.
I hazarded the loss of whom I loved. --Shak.
They hazard to cut their feet. --Landor.
Syn: To venture; risk; jeopard; peril; endanger.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, ©
1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

hazarding

n : the act of gambling; "he did it on a bet" [syn:
bet, wager, risking, staking]

Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hazarding


 
So, the big discovery on her part is that Levine has
big problems and is at risk, in danger; on L's part
that he can safely put little Buttercup in the
servant/salesclerk category and accord her the same
measure of compassion that he would a character in a
pulp novel or B movie. 

Overlay the lovers from the Pasiphae myth and A
Farewell to Arms, and what do you get?


-Doug







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