SLSL "A Small Rain"

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 30, 2002 1:11 AM
Subject: Re: SLSL "A Small Rain"


>
> I think that Nathan "Lardass" Levine is more of a prototype for Seaman
"Pig"
> Bodine. Some of the other characters and/or names in the story likewise
seem
> to pop up again in later works too. Benny Picnic, for example, who has a
> problem with the (inanimate) Coke machine (31-2).
>

I think that's not the worst idea about it. The way Levine and Bodine deal
with the military hierarchy seems similar to me. Another later example of
this type would be "Badass" Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) from Hal Ashby's "The
Last Detail" (1973)
http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=A28312

>
> And on her side "little Buttercup" is a "never totally violated Pasiphae"
> either (which makes of Levine a "white bull", by the way). Her racist or
> elitist prejudices have already been exposed in the dismissive attitude
she
> betrays towards the locals killed in the hurricane: "Well, Creole" she
says
> (49), which is when Levine tests her accent. This links her directly back
to
> the company clerk, Dugan, whose racist beliefs are outlined on p. 29.
>

I saw this not so much as elitist or racist but as an example of what is
called the egoistic "The St. Florian"-principle over here:

"Heiliger Sankt Florian, verschon' mein Haus, zünd's andere an."
(don't burn my house, take another one)

Otto

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