SLSL "The Small Rain"

[jbor]

on 29/11/02 8:04 AM, David Meury at dmeury at yahoo.com wrote:

> Obviously, the phrase "small rain" seems ironic in the
> context of a hurricane, but then, "slow learner" seems
> ironic considering the intellect of the author.
> 
> But I do not think the phrases are just and only
> meaningful from an ironic perspective.
> The story, "Small Rain," begins with "Outside, the
> company area broiled slowly under the sun."  The setup
> establishes a contrast to the title and the
> significance of water to come.  Associated somewhat
> with the arid landscape is Lardass Levine who is
> described as "a seed that casts himself on stony
> places, with no deepness of earth" (p.39).
> 
> By the way, the alienation of a smart enlisted man is
> certainly something Pynchon can identify with (note
> that I am not asserting that Levine is Pynchon).
> 
> While the rain later encountered may constitute a
> facing up to death, the idea of small rain may
> represent a lesson, a watering which causes the wasted
> seed to sprout.

Yes. The (figurative) "small rain" which finally stirs Levine's "dull roots"
in the aftermath of the hurricane is just like the "little death" (*la
petite morte* - orgasm) which he and Buttercup experience "[i]n the midst of
great death" (50-51). Each is a sort of sensual/spiritual/mystical
epiphenomenon or metamorphosis, but self-consciously and even perhaps
ambivalently so.

best




> Another "by the way", with regard to Pynchon's ear for
> dialog:  in the '50s and early '60s, my family used to
> vacation on a small farm in Virginia on one of the
> backwaters of the Chesapeake Bay.   The farm was run
> by my 80-year old or so great uncle whose father was
> wounded in the battle of Antietam. (I include this by
> way of establishing the authenticity of my uncle's
> regional accent).
> 
> Although I cannot specifically remember his
> pronunciation of "out," I was able to detect a
> particular difference in dialect from my mother's
> North Carolina drawl.  There was sort of a New England
> pronunciation in words like "grass" which, as he said
> it, rhymed with "moss."  The change in vowel sounds
> makes me think that his pronunciation of "out" might
> well have been in the neighborhood of "oot."
> 
> Since Dugan is a Virginian and Pynchon probably spent
> some of his Navy time at Norfolk, Virginia, well . . .
>