VLVL(5) At the Movies and on the Tube

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Nightingale" <isread at btopenworld.com>
To: "'Pynchon-L'" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 8:15 AM
Subject: Re: VLVL(5) At the Movies and on the Tube


>
> From Dave Monroe:
> >
> > --- Otto <ottosell at yahoo.de> wrote:
> > >
> > > What about the strange idea of describing his "inner
> > > feelings" by a movie-quote? It doesn't make those
> > > feelings very authentic.
> >
> > But the question here then, is exactly when are
> > feelings "authentic" or otherwise?  Especially in any
> > given description/expression/whatever thereof?  When
> > is any such description NOT a "quote" of some sort?
>
> My immediate response to Otto's question ... would it be better if Zoyd
> quoted Shakespeare?
>

It's no question of better or worse but I got struck by the expression
"inner feelings". Of course I've spent my time before the tube and went to
the movies but I've never expressed my 'inner feelings' by a film quote.
I've never said: I feel like Robert de Niro in "Taxi Driver", or Bruce
Willis in "The Fifth Element". I once drove an old lady who said to me when
I started the engine: "Energie" - which is what Kirk says in German before
the Enterprise gets off into hyperspace.

> It's interesting that Zoyd expresses his feelings through, and therefore
> hides them behind, any kind of quotation.

I agree about the hiding.

> As far as the novel's
> concerned, this scene is in marked contrast to the previous one with
> Frenesi, at the wedding. There Zoyd gushes something about being saved,
> because "he hadn't learned yet what a stupid question it was" (39).
> Here, in a jump-cut to the end of their relationship, he plays on her
> knowledge of film history: to ingratiate himself?
>

Well, it isn't exactly a compliment:

"The original James M. Cain novel concerned a tawdry waitress who slept her
way to financial security (...) Ranald McDougall's screenplay tones down the
novel's sexual content (...)."
http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll

Isn't Frenesi giving up a possible career as a film-maker for being Brock's
bitch?

"Fuck her, he chirped to himself, today's your release date, let ol' Brock
have her, let him take her on into that lawyers' world where they can get
away with anything and get everything they want (...)." (61.12-15)

Otto