Mortailty & Mercy in Vienna (MMV) Summary

[S.R. Prozak]

Man stares into the slaves'n'masters nature of social transaction, notice he's aging and smears his own feces into his eye sockets. Don't fuck the walrus, Oedipus.

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Bailey" <johnbonbailey at hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2003 17:08:10 +1100
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Mortailty & Mercy in Vienna (MMV) Summary

> Cleanth Siegel, a 30 year old diplomat freshly returned to Washington, 
> arrives at an address given to him by his (perhaps) girlfriend Rachel. The 
> situation (following tortuous instructions to reach a destination which does 
> not include Rachel) sparks an associative train of thought, touching on 
> Siegel’s job (with the ‘Commission’), history (army, college), religious 
> upbringing (Jewish/Catholic) and some of the figures from his past. He’s 
> here for a party, but doesn’t want to be.
> 
> Siegel is greeted at the door by David Lupescu, a wild and woolly 
> funhouse-mirror image of himself, and ushered into the pre-party apartment. 
> Lupescu carries a pig foetus which he tacks to a doorframe and claims as an 
> homage to Dadaism. He looks mad. Smells drunk. Talks funny. Comes to a 
> sudden decision and leaves, bequeathing his position as host to the 
> bewildered Siegel.
> 
> Siegel calls Rachel and is told that he’ll be on his own tonight, as she’s 
> tied up with babysitting. Before she’s done, the first guests arrive: a 
> Proto-Pig Bodine style sailor-suited Southerner with a retro-bohemian girl 
> on his back. Some mild banter before the apartment is filled with roaring 
> college boys, forcing Siegel and the neo-boho (Lucy) into a bedroom to talk 
> privately. He confesses to her his predicament, and she informs him that 
> Lupescu was “going native” anyway. This sparks another lengthy digression on 
> the topic of “going native” in urban environments, following the trajectory 
> of a former roommate named Grossmann who had lost himself to Boston.
> 
> Lucy offers to help Siegel if he’ll listen to her problems. He agrees, and 
> she launches into a detailed and circuitous narrative of friends and enemies 
> and lovers and rivals. This continues for fifteen minutes before they 
> informed of increasing collegiate mayhem back out in the throng, and Siegel 
> resolves to play the host as requested. He spots one of the characters in 
> Lucy’s story, a Debby Considine, who has brought with her an Ojibwa fellow 
> named Irving Loon. Considine reprises Lucy’s role as 
> girl-with-a-burden-to-share, and Siegel again finds himself comfortably 
> falling into Lupescu’s role of father-confessor.
> 
> This time around, his subject is concerned about Loon’s psychological state, 
> linking it to the native American legend of the windigo and the modern 
> interpretation of “windigo psychosis”. Siegel recalls what he has previously 
> heard of this state, and the stories of the windigo, but upon returning his 
> attention to Considine feels that his role is only to listen and give 
> absolution, not to dispense “practical advice.” Soon enough, he has had 
> enough, and returns to the party (again). He is introduced to Loon, who 
> seems distant. A nervous Paul Brennan approaches and the father-confessor 
> act is on again. By the time he is free, Siegel has been contemplating (in a 
> paranoid manner) the idea that Loon is possessed of the windigo psychosis.
> 
> The party is slowing down when Siegel’s paranoia is proven not unfounded. 
> Loon passes in a trance and fetches a rifle from the confessional bedroom. 
> Siegel takes five seconds to consider his course of action before leaving 
> quietly, and shrugging when the first screams reach his departing ears.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> MSN Instant Messenger now available on Australian mobile phones. Go to  
> http://ninemsn.com.au/mobilecentral/hotmail_messenger.asp
> 

-- 
__________________________________________________________
Sign-up for your own FREE Personalized E-mail at Mail.com
http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup