MDMD 'The All-Nations Coffee-House' (299.32)

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

Yes. I noticed that distinction, myself. And it's Dixon who is thinking 
that the clientele of the All Nations are "louder beefier and all together 
less earnest" than he now expects to find in Philadelphia. I suspect 
that Dolly fairly quickly surveyed the terrain of Dixon's soul, and 
is well aware of any creatures and "Powers hidden" that might be
lurking there. She certainly has him lapping out of her palm, while
she carefully avoids any of his advances. 



In a message dated 1/27/02 8:38:20 PM, millison at online-journalist.com writes:

<< re Dolly's reference to 'The All-Nations Coffee-House' (299.32)

here's something I posted back in the first P-list reading of M&D:


>Otherwise, Dixon's visit to the All-Nations echoes the scene in GR when
>Major Marvy, having received the 2 1/2 ounces of cocaine from Bodine, goes
>to the brothel named House of All Nations, where he winds up with Manuela
>and entertains his racist and militaristic metaphors of penetration
>("...visions go swarming, violent, less erotic than you think--more
>occupied with thrust, impact, penetration, and such other military values.
>Which is not to say he isn't "), wears Slothrop's pig costume to escape
>when the place is busted, and gets himself gelded in Slothrop's place as a
>result.
>
>The set-up here in M&D suggests that Dixon's fun-loving interest in dusky
>damsels may not be all that different from Major Marvy's -- at least in the
>same ball park, we don't get the nitty-gritty detail of Dixon's exploits
>with the women the way we see Marvy at work with Manuela in GR.  But the
>parallel is there all the same. The All-Nations cafe features "serving
>girls....costumed in whimsical versions of the native dress of each of the
>coffee-producing countries,-- an Arabian girl, a Mexican girl, a Javanese
>girl, and according to Dolly, a Sumatran girl as well".  Our narrator tells
>us the girls present "a constantly shifting Pageant of allegorical Coffees
>of the World, to some ways of thinking , in fact quite educational." But,
>given the echo of the GR whorehouse scene, these girls in native costume
>may represent something more, especially as we see that they are
>"attracting a core Clientele louder, beefier, and altogether less earnest
>than Dixon by now expects to find in Philadelphia."
>
>Attractions of these dark-skinned girls (sex) identified with coffee
>(caffeine) and we're back to a couple of Pynchonian themes packed into this
>little scene:  the European male romping in the third-world flesh pit;
>given coffee's importance in the mercantile system of trade, we've got the
>theme of economic exploitation, too.
>
>Interesting, too, that Dolly -- here seen not as the sexy Franklin groupie
>or Mason and Dixon bait (299.8 "she's certainly not as eye-catchingly
>rigg'd out tonight as he's seen her before"  and she seems Dixon's equal in
>surveying skill), is the one to peg Dixon as the type to be interested in
>third world girls:  "Rather took you for an All-Nations Lad myself."
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9710&msg=20902&sort=date


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