SLSL 'Low-lands' racism?

[tess marek]

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
> No idea. You tell us. But the idea of a
> "proto-Fascist" Italian insurgence
> into Cuba (recently-constituted as "Communist" at
> the time of the story's
> writing) is certainly a big part of it.

Not sure there are any big parts here. Just little
ones. Sort of fragments or snap shots or kinda like
those pin-ups Bolingbroke has there in the dump. 

Anyway, Yes, it seems P has been interested in
Anarchists and Unions for quite some time. But, after
V., I suspect, P begins a radical change in his
thinking about lots of stuff. 

Bolingbroke is an interesting name. I'm quite certain
that P took the name from Shakespeare. Maybe he just
wanted the name of a King, but maybe there is more to
the name. 

I think P likes those Henry plays because he keeps
going back to them. 

At top of page 68 we have all those brightly colored
pin-ups. 

They are desribed as the "blurred humanity of a nine
day wonder..." 

And that phrase, "A nine-day wonder" is also found in
one of the Henry Plays.  


The phrase nine days' wonder first appeared in print
in the late 1500s, and an allusion to it can be found
in this Shakespearean exchange from Henry VI: King
Edward
observes You'd think it strange if I should marry
her... to which the Duke of Gloucester agrees That
would be ten days' wonder, at the least and the Duke
of Clarence adds That's a day longer than a wonder
lasts. 

So, while it's possible that P did not take the phrase
from Henry VI, we still have the name Bolingbroke. But
it's possible that P did take both the phrase and the
name from the Henry plays because of some of the
themes in the Henry Plays (Henry IV, parts 1 & 2,
Henry V, VI, VIII, John, Richard II, III). One theme
is that of (Falstaff / Pig) Hal's maturity,
responsibility to family, to marriage, job...  Another
theme, the one that shook the Queen to her core when
she sat for Richard II, is that of the problem of
legitimacy for the usurper monarchs or what might be
called in our modern day, military dictatorships.
Bolingbroke is "the king of smiles." Bolingbroke was a
very talented, charismatic man and he won over the
artisans and skilled craftsmen, the common people,
with his smiles.  But Bolingbroke, for all his energy
and talent, despite all his brilliant calculations and
power- plays, lacked legitimacy. Richard, the
imaginative poet King was the legitimate ruler.  

But why does Pynchon put Bolingbroke in a dump? Well,
in one sense the dump is kind of a 1950s Wasteland and
it is kind of a dream of Flange's, a fantasy of sorts,
a wish fulfillment,  a manifestation of his mood-he's
down in the dumps and he's been pushed out of the womb
into life and is now confronted with the possibility
of fertilizing the wasteland, of communicating, of
procreating. So, sure Dulcinea/Lolita (Google this!)
Fairy Tale Nobokov. And we can toss in Rip Van Winkle
for good measure.  But, these tales tell us how
Pynchon works, how he develops as a young author. So,
we can read this tale and SI as companion tales. Sort
of like the agonistic Henry plays. Because garbage and
waste and the throw away society are essential to SI
too. And it might be interesting to take a quick look
at Benny Profane in the dump up in Elmira (Cornell)
too and on into CL WASTE, GR's dumps, Zoyd and the
dump and so on.  Anyway, what happens in the dump? The
guys sit around and drink and tell stories. OK, so a
lot has been said about Flange's not wanting to tell a
sea story so skip that for now, but what about
Bolingbroke's tale? 

Bolingbroke tale has him spending  some time at sea.
He travels from port to port aboard disreputable
Panamanian registered merchantmen after WWI.  Now,
that's got a ring a bell for the student of 1920s
Latin American politics. And Pynchon seems to have had
an interest in LA history and politics. 
Recall that all of Latin America got behind the US in
WWI. The dictators lined up like ducks in a row. But
the people were not always behind the dictators. They
began to unionize in coffee and bananas. Interesting
that P mentions GGM in the Introduction too. Why is
Bolingbroke on a merchantmen with an Irish name 
supporting the Unions and the rebels in Latin America?


Then they went to Jose Arcadio Buendia's room, shook
him as hard as they could, shouted in his ear, put a
mirror in front of his nostrils, but they could not
awaken him. A short time later, when the carpenter was
taking a measurement for his coffin, through the
window they saw a light rain of tiny yellow flowers
falling. They fell on the town all through the night
in a silent storm, and they covered the roofs and
blocked the doors.  So many flowers fell from the sky
that in the morning the streets were carpeted with a
compact cushion and they had to clear them away with
shovels and rakes so that the funeral procession could
pass by. 


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