VLVL2 (9) Opening line +

[Paul Nightingale]

>From Tim:

>>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?<<

DL repeats (and transforms) the question Prairie asked. She then describes
the narrative connections between herself and Takeshi, Ralph and Brock Vond,
scene-setting that, in narrative terms, should be juxtaposed to the way
earlier chapters have opened. She begins by not answering the question,
although clearly the story she tells is the only way of adequately doing so.

Of course, one of the great drawbacks of taking characters out of the
narrative, treating the text as a series of clues that can be picked up to
reassemble an autonomous character (aka the 'real person'), is that
characters don't exist outside of the narrative, not just what is written,
but also how. Hence, "DL's voice finding some agitated soprano level" is but
another example of temporising; which in the way I've read it previously (ie
not ignoring the term's ambiguity) is the key to storytelling here. What is
told can only be told in the way it's told.

The opening question-that-isn't (?) is followed by one that is, a question
of agency. Ralph is an object of DL's gaze, "some kind of groupie. She'd
noticed him, among the spectators". In this version, DL's, the performer is
idealised and, consequently, empowered.

However, this is only because she is an object of his gaze: "Ralph never
thought of the look on his face as the helpless stare of an older man
through a schoolyard fence, but more as the alert beaming of a
micromanager." Hence, "the time he'd invested had yielded him a file he knew
he'd make use of one day ..." (132). Ralph approaches her in the coffee
shop, "looming over her food and glaring at it".

His passive gaze through the fence (as just another groupie) is replaced by
a rather more active gaze, deflected from DL to the "rubber scampi" (in
Tim's "sophomoric joke").

Furthermore, the first dialogue exchange in the chapter has Ralph asking:
"How can you eat that?" To which DL responds: "Just what I ask myself." This
of course is what has happened when she repeats Prairie's question by asking
herself how she met Takeshi.

When he finds her, "she had been staring dejectedly, apparently for some
time" at the food. This is a low of sorts; and the performer has been
disempowered by a mismatch between skills and income (even if Ralph's offer
will remind us that the exchange-value of any skill is a quite arbitrary
arrangement).

Anyway, one infers that DL's meals aren't a source of great pleasure; but
that "apparently" belongs to Ralph. Hence DL's dejection confirms his
mastery of the scene. DL temporises: "She promised to give him her decision
at dinner the next evening" (132), a meal that is postponed until the blind
date, orchids and champagne, sex and steaks (137-140). At which time she
notes that she has been bought "for the sticker price of a Lamborghini plus
options. How could a girl not be impressed?"

Another question-that-isn't. After all, reminding herself of the offer she
declined previously, "as lagniappe she'd get the chance to ice detestable
Brock Vond once and for all" (139).

A fine word, "lagniappe"; and delightfully ironic in context. 

http://www.bartleby.com/61/80/L0018000.html