VLVL Ralph Sr.

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Terrance" <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 7:07 PM
Subject: Re: VLVL Ralph Sr.
> >
> > His peace is bought by the bad luck of others. His wealth is obscene.
>
> Hey, we can't all own Park Place and Boardwalk. Can we? He's Italian,
> give him a break. He may look obscene to you but to me (reading the
> text) the guy is polite, cultured, tasteful, copasetic even.
>

No, we can't, but to me it makes a difference if the money for buying such a
big house is made by honest or by mafiotic business.

>
> >
> > "This wedding today was costing Ralph more than he'd paid for the
house."
> > (94.10-11)
>
> Got any daughters, Otto? In Californai and New York it's not all that
> uncommon for a father to spend more money on his only daughter than he
> paid for his house. Sure, Ralph paid a pretty penny for that house on
> the hill, but a big fat Italian wedding ain't exactly cheap.
>

Yes, but I lack the money to buy a house, therefor I never will be able to
spend more for her wedding than for my house. By the way, this Italian
wedding between the daughter of a mafia-boss and a college professor is part
of the mafia-camouflage too. That's how "The Family" tries to gain
respectability within the bigger American family that *wonderful* piece
Richard Fiero has posted is talking about.

What about Gelsomina and her lover. We're guests at their wedding but where
are they, what do we get know about them? Nothing, they're unimportant,
they're extra, the college guy of a good family hasn't even got a name. It's
enough that his family has one.

>
> > People are being blackmailed, hit and killed. That's what Mafia is
about.
>
> Not in the book. Oh, are you talking about the botched "hit" on BV?

Here I have to borrow from Rob what he says about Zoyd:

"It's not an allegation; it's an assumption, from experience."

Otto