VLVL Takeshi

[Terrance]

jbor wrote:
> 
> on 29/11/03 3:12 AM, Terrance wrote:
> 
> > The joke:  "Just keep an eye on his feet, you'll be fine." VL page 149
> 
> I read this in a martial arts context, as DL's instruction to Prairie to
> watch out for his karate kicks or something.

Takeshi has Prairie by the hand. He leers genially. Calls her toots.  DL
is coaching  her, but I don't think it's martial arts, more like sexual
DANCE strategy. 

The characters in this novel often treat others as if they are neophytes
inexperienced in the life lessons that they, as experienced and jaded 
mentors,  have already learned.
They see other character characters  as younger, inexperienced, doubles,
students ...  who have yet to see the light/dark.  

DANCE  



i.e., 

when Frenesi meets Hector she will try to get him to see that his ideas
about revolution and film are naive and absurd. Frenesi and Hector will
end up dancing. Their reminds us of Katje Borgesius dancing with Pirate
in GR, partnerships, doubles, betrayal, preterition,
innocence/experience dance. DL dances (VL.122) with her mentor and with
Ralph (139). 
 




> 
> The line in the airport scene isn't DL talking, it's a detached narrator
> joking about how "high" Takeshi was (160.13-14).

I'm not sure what a detached narrator is in this chapter. The
interruptions include comments that suggest that the characters are
narrating. Of course what appears to be DL narration seems to be
detached from her. In an y event, I'm not sure why you are making note
of this fact here. 




> 
> > Prairie is swift, but she's so hungry for the story that she's willing
> > to swallow some  big fish on the line.
> 
> Don't know about that. Her interruptions show her as sceptical (eg. 141,
> 149, 151) just like she was earlier with Zoyd and at Ralph's.

OH YES! She is very skeptical (swift kid). No one is gonna pull her leg
and get away with it. But she is willing to say, OK you guys I'm not
buying that part but I'm not saying I'm not interested in buying a lot
here. 



> 
> > How about YOU? Hungry? Here, have
> > some jellied bologna. Some rubber scampi?
> 
> Or a smiling baby Jesus.

The smiling baby might be a black doll, stiff, rubber, cold, have white
parents with blond hair and blue eyes,  who under close inspection are
3rd graders in christmas play costume and nikes... suddenly it comes
alive and says, "I be man now," rolls over in his bed of straw and blast
the stable with a fart knocking down the donkey exposing the altar boy
and priest.  


> 
> I suppose one could just pretend that those parts of Pynchon's texts he or
> she doesn't like or doesn't understand or doesn't agree with derive from
> some drugged-out narrator and dismiss their significance that way, but that
> seems like a cop-out to me.

Well, we shouldn't dismiss these or any sections, but we shouldn't
expect that our narrators must be sober.