SLSL "A Small Rain"

[Paul Mackin]

Dave Meury wrote:

>>Why the cigar, by the way?
>>    
>>
>
>I'm with Freud and Dave Monroe; I don't think there's much significance
>here but . . .
>
>Is there a significance to the baseball cap and, if so, how does it bear
>on the possible significance of the cigar?
>

The two (cap and cigar) are of a piece, seems to me. A 
withholding-of-self from the proceedings.  Not giving the girl his full 
attention.  Protective insulation? A security blanket? Was this Lardass, 
or Pynchon?

In the Hemingway passage Roberto refuses an arm around Maria.  Holding 
her hand is enough he sez. One might have thought this to be kind of 
ungallant. But in the totality of the passage it is not.  

Not trying to make too much of the Hemingway thing. Just a thought.

P.

>
>The cigar is a de Nobilis (the Nobles?) but despite the fancy name, it's
>a cheap cigar (class distinctions / HMS Pinafore / locals vs college
>kids).
>
>There was a Jesuit missionary named Robert de' Nobili who was noted for
>"going native" in India.
>
>Oh, don't ask me -- I think it's all too much of a stretch, but I could
>be short-sighted.
>
>
>  
>