VLVL2 (2) Notes and commentary, p14

[Paul Nightingale]

(14.1-2)"Zoyd made it home in time to watch himself on the Tube ..."

Zoyd has drifted through the opening chapter; he is still trying to keep
up.

(14.3) "... Pia Zadora in The Clara Bow Story."

Clara Bow was a silent star and the 'IT Girl'. IT: "That quality
possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force."

For a somewhat gushing tribute see: http://www.clarabow.net/

It's worth adding that, in Sex Psyche Etcetera in the Cinema (1969),
Parker Tyler describes Clara Bow as "only a rampaging teenager with
sex-appeal" and "essentially ... decent" (whatever that means - he's
comparing her to the "sacred-whore type" as represented by Jean Harlow).
Prairie's sexuality does feature in this chapter (eg 15.7-14, 18.17-18
and 20.16-17) and elsewhere, not least at the novel's ending.

(14.5) Prairie: "Use it to cover my futon."

Futon: a Japanese bed-quilt or mattress.

>From the OED:
 
   1876 Trans. Asiatic Soc. Japan IV. 172 Those ... who ... are tired of
tinned meats and live futons.  1886 E. S. Morse Jap. Homes 212 The
futons, or comforters, are ... hung over the balcony rail to air.  1891
Chamberlain & Mason Handbk. Japan 8 Beds are still rare; but good quilts
(futon) are laid down on the mats.  1959 Encounter Jan. 20/2 Their
futon—the wadded quilt stuffed with cotton-wool which serves the
Japanese for a bed.  

   Add: Also futong (-QN). Hence, any thin mattress or low-lying bed
deriving from or resembling the Japanese original.

   1972 N.Y. Times 11 June x. 18/5 Beds are quilt-like puffs called
futongs stored in a closet until night when they are unfolded on the
tatami mat floor.  1974 K. Millett Flying v. 477 His mother came
upstairs to help me measure for a new futong.  1984 J. Dentinger First
Hit of Season vii. 46 An empty vodka bottle stood on the floor by the
futon sofa.  1986 Artseen Dec. 19/2 They fall onto the stripped-pine
futon.  

References included, above, do emphasise the growing popularity of the
futon (as an 'alien' object only gradually becoming familiar through
being talked about) in the novel's recent past. As an example of
globalisation one might juxtapose it to the reference, in Ch1, to
Japanese companies buying up logs. More on globalisation later.

(14.15) "Let's see, 1984, that'd make you ... fourteen?"

The conclusion of the passage that introduces Prairie's sexuality.

Also an indirect reference to the end of the 1960s, confirmed by
Prairie's subsequent reference to Isaiah's "hippy-freak parents"
(16.10-11). One of the goals of the chapter, continuing from Ch1, is the
writing of 'the past' (eg the history of Zoyd's window-jumping exploits,
15.22-23 and 16.29-17.8) leading to Zoyd's concluding thoughts on Hector
(21.15-18).

(14.16) Her reply: "Nice going, like to try for the car?"

Game-show questioning. A reminder, perhaps, of the reference to Wheel of
Fortune, with which Ch1 ended.

(14.18-19) "The girl shied away in mock alarm, covering her mouth and
making her eyes round.

The Ingénue. Prairie's performance of melodrama here recalls the
silent-movie heroine, eg Clara Bow. Perhaps her gesture is taken from
the film she is watching.