VLVL Takeshi

[jbor]

>> Prairie's interruption at 149.15 comes at the moment in Takeshi's narrative
>> when he's describing his mixed feelings as he's about to enter the brothel
>> as Brock's decoy. After Prairie's sarcastic remarks the narrator recounts
>> the circumstances of Takeshi's arrival the previous night and what happened
>> "[w]hen they were introduced next morning at breakfast": it's a flashback
>> ("She'd finally got to meet ... "  = past perfect or pluperfect tense,
>> indicating past in the past). Thus, the conversation from 149.23-31 happened
>> that morning at breakfast, when they "were introduced". Then, there's a
>> transitional shift back to the current time of the Takeshi's narration:
>> "From then on" (i.e. from breakfast, when DL introduced Prairie to Takeshi)
>> he'd been adding "color commentary to DL's version". And, in fact, this has
>> been happening from 142.9.
> 
> What do you mean by Takeshi's narration?
> 
> Are you saying that Takeshi takes over the narrative at  142.9
> "Meanwhile, Takeshi Fumimota ...

Yes. This is the point where he began adding his "color commentary", back
after he and Prairie were introduced at breakfast. The pluperfect tense on
149.14-5 sets up a brief flashback to that introduction.

> If so, there is no detachment, "the standard narrative device"  (first
> person narration segues into embellished third person narrative) isn't
> employed. 

Yes it is. For example, when the narrator says "Noticing a number of curious
looks, he glided out again into the airport lobby" (160), it's definitely
third person narration, and it seems likely to me that it's detached from
Takeshi's perspective rather than "engaged". Narrative agency in Pynchon's
texts switches back and forth like this all the time. Sometimes third person
narration is filtered through the character's consciousness, as with Zoyd on
the novel's opening page; and sometimes the characters' story-telling (as
with DL's and Takeshi's recounts to Prairie here) slides across into
omniscient (or external) narration.

best

> Or are you saying that the narrative is still being filtered
> through DL's consciousness with thrid-person embellishment and Takeshi's
> color commentary?
> 
> "Looks like I got here just in time." From then on he was not shy about
> putting in color commentary on DL's version. Until, just before the
> dark metal door with the plastic key, he paused and wondered aloud,
> "Maybe we should just skip over the sex part here ...."
> 
> First, it looks like DL has been telling the story (DL's version). That
> Takeshi has been putting in color commentary. It's DL's version we're
> getting here, that Prairie is getting too. Since DL  could not know the
> Takeshi parts he must have told her and now she is telling Prairie.
> Takeshi is merely adding color commentary. Is that right?