SLSL: 'Low-lands' Nerissa & Hyacinth

[jbor]

The other point to make is that this "ambiguity", or indeterminacy, about
whether or not Nerissa is flesh or fantasy, is a deliberate stroke. Pynchon
poses two mutually exclusive possibilities - that Flange really does meet up
with Nerissa and that he only dreams her - and these two alternative
"realities" co-exist within the text. Like Schrödinger's cat.

"In a way this is more of a character sketch than a story. ... [Flange's]
fantasies become embarrassingly vivid, that's about all that happens.

... Nerissa, a woman with the size and demeanor of a child. I can't remember
for sure, but it looks like I wanted some ambiguity here about whether or
not she was only a creature of his fantasies." ('Intro' pp. 9-10)

best


on 16/1/03 6:37 AM, jbor at jbor at bigpond.com wrote:

> And while I really do like the analysis of Dennis's psyche and Al's weave on
> the story's symbolic elements, I'd say the probability of it being a fantasy
> of Flange's - the knock on the head from the avalanche of snow tires being
> the most probable cause if it is just delirium - is pitched at about 50%
> rather than 90%. Thus, I'm not so sure about his Freudian take on Hyacinth
> either, which seems a tad harsh. Rats cop a bad rap, or so the story would
> like us to believe.