VLVL2: Why Clara Bow?

[jbor]

>> And another part of the
>> joke is indeed the casting, though it's more often a case of
> dissimilarity,
>> or a strange sort of lateral thinking-type symmetry, rather than
> similarity
>> (Pia Zadora is totally miscast as Clara Bow, for example, and John Ritter
>> plays Bryant Gumbel!) I don't think the casting necessarily follows any
> sort
>> of rhyme or reason, which is also part of Pynchon's play in mocking the
>> genre.
>>
 
on 31/7/03 12:50 PM, Tim Strzechowski at dedalus204 at comcast.net wrote:

> I understand what you're saying, but isn't part of Pynchon's "rhyme or
> reason" with this running gag based on the the dissimilarity you've just
> mentioned?

Not really. The dissimilarities are different. Each of the biopics is vastly
improbable, but for different reasons. (eg. Though Woody Allen looks a bit
like Kissinger there's no way he would star in this type of made-for-tv
flick, nor would Sean Connery; Pat Sajak isn't even an actor, and he bears
no resemblance at all to Frank Gorshin; John Ritter is a white man etc.
PeeWee Herman in 'The Robert Musil Story' is possibly the most outrageous of
all, though this particular stroke of casting "genius" does bring both Jerry
Lewis and Jim Carrey to mind). On the other hand, within the "reality" of
the novel the telemovies exist and the characters watch them, and make a
deliberate effort to watch them. The idea of following up the context in
which the characters watch each of the movies is a good one, but ultimately
I don't think it really leads anywhere either.

The point about Prairie mimicking the movie in the way she "shied away in
mock alarm, making her mouth and her eyes round" (14.18) is a good one. This
is a trademark Clara Bow move. One wonders, however, how well Pia Zadora
would have been able to bring this move off, and so there's a
self-consciousness about the improbability of it all as well.

best