VLVL2 (4) Off-stage & On the Waterfront

[Terrance]

> Q: What is the schlemiel?

I said, Zoyd is a Pynchon schlemiel. 

So, although I agree that we might want to talk about the schlemiel, a
Pynchon schlemiel is a Pynchon schlemiel. 

Also, a Pynchon schlimazel, is a Pynchon schlimazel. And Zoyd is both. 

So, if you are looking for the schlimazel you will find him in Zoyd. 


  Remember in V.,  Before Benny shoots Stencil in the ass, Benny "turned
to face him." 

Benny,   "sentimental," "superstitious," refers to himself first as
  "schlemiel" and next as "schlimazel." It is moment of great crisis,
something spiritual is happening. Yes, Tom is tickling your funny soul. 

 "Surely the Alligator will receive the gift of tongues, the body of
  Father Fairing be resurrected, the sexy V. tempt him away
  from murder." 

Gift of tongues. Just another Catholic Joak? Vato and Blood don't quite
have the gift. 




A Pynchon Schlemiel/schlimazel is defined in the novel V. 



"I know, Profane thought. I am a descendent of schlemiels,
  Job founded my line."


Job. 

  "Hey," called Mafia from the writing desk. "How do you spell
  Prometheus, anybody."

Prometheus, 

  Benny Profane "-in Union Square at sundown, blindfolded by a
  raging hangover and covered by a comforter of chilly pigeons
  who looked liked vultures-"

"I'm sorry," he told the alligator. He was always saying he was sorry.
It
  was a schlemiel's stock line. He raised the repeater to his shoulder,
  flicked off the safety. "Sorry," he said again. Father Fairing talked
to
  rats. Profane talked to alligators. He fired. The alligator jerked,
did a
  back flip, thrashed briefly, was still. Blood began to seep out
amoebalike
  to form shifting patterns with the weak glow of the the water.
Abruptly,
  the flashlight went out.

Job & Prometheus. 

The the world of the ancient Jews and the world of the ancient Greeks is
long gone. The Virgin is now a Dynamo. Before the flash light fails him,
his fiend Angel, his guiding light, is pulled in a drunken rage out of
the sewer. Benny is left alone. But he's got a gun. 

Zoyd, like Benny, has a big problem with the most important, most
ubiquitous machine in our Modern World, the Clock. 

There is an old fairy tale in one of Mumford's books about the
Benedictines (the working order of Monks in the RC church) having
invented both the clock and capitalism. It's a fairy tale, they didn't,
but it's useful nonetheless. 


A bit more from Wisse, 



Since Jewry’s attitudes towards its own frailty were complex
  and contradictory, the Schlemiel was sometimes berated for
  his foolish weakness, and elsewhere exalted for his hard
  inner strength. For the reformers who sought ways for
  strengthening and improving Jewish life and laws, the
  Schlemiel embodied those negative qualities of weakness that
  had to be ridiculed to be overcome. Conversely, to the
  degree that Jews looked upon their disabilities as external
  afflictions, sustained through no fault of their own, they
  used the Schlemiel as the model of endurance, his innocence
  a shield against corruption, his absolute defenselessness
  the only guaranteed defense against the brutalizing
  potential of might.
       Ruth Wisse    “The Schlemiel as Modern Hero”

Zoyd is a fool,  and yet, as Robert said, we don't want to condemn or
demonize him.  
What is his inner strength? When I was reading Doug's posts he mentioned
something about Zoyd's having built a house out of scraps and what not.
Just one example. 




  Switch the dialects, alter a few details, and most black
  jokes can become Jewish Jokes or Irish Jokes with a minimum
  of loss
When a Schlimazel’s bread-and butter accidentally
  falls on the floor it always lands butter side down; with a
  Schlemiel it’s much the same-except that he butters his
  bread on both sides first.

      Sanford Pinsker    “The Schlemiel as Metaphor, Studies
  in Yiddish and Jewish American Fiction”

Oh shit, I'm late ....  and a rabbit with a waste coat is calling me to
the blue bus to brazil's blue ....