VLVL2 (9): Opening Line

[Tim Strzechowski]

130.1:  "How did we meet," DL's voice finding some agitated soprano level.



DL's remark is in response to the exchange between herself and Prairie at the conclusion of the previous chapter.  Prairie asks her how she and Takeshi once met and DL lets out an exclamation, a scream of intensity equated with Saturday-morning cartoons (129.8).  
 
Prairie says, "Gee, thought it was a pretty innocent question. . . ."

Interestingly, DL's response which opens Chapter 9 is not a question per se.  Though structured as such, Pynchon doesn't grant it a question mark.  The question itself, therefore, becomes questionable as it forms the impetus for DL's response in this chapter: a flashback that will provide the interpolated tale of DL's experiences with Ralph Wayvone and, later, Takeshi.

The way in which DL delivers the remark, however ("DL's voice finding some agitated soprano level"), suggests that it rises in pitch toward the end of the four words, thus being asked as a question.  Is it possible to do this without the remark *sounding* like a question?

This ambiguity between declarative and interrogative reflects not only the style of P's work -- which often blurs the distinction between reality and illusion, between and among narrative points-of-view -- but also reflects the themes of paranoia and illusory perceptions found in this and other P works.


By the way -- and forgive my being really nit-picky here -- but has anyone else noticed the use of four ellipses when a piece of dialogue trails off in this novel?  
 
cf.  "Gee, thought it was a pretty innocent question. . . ."

Is it not standard practice in typesetting to use three ellipses, each with a space between, as well as a space separating the last word from the first ellipsis?  I've noticed that this is done pretty consistently throughout VL (8.20, 91.14, for example) and I find it sorta curious, is all.

Tim


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