LPPM MMV "Siegel"

[Terrance]

Paul Nightingale wrote:
> 
> If indeed Pynchon once roomed with someone named Siegel it's a fact,
> indisputably so, that the character in MMIV has the same name. What does
> it mean? Well, later on in the story Siegel is himself given a roommate.
> Grossmann = Pynchon? Who can tell? However, it might be worthwhile
> pondering the narrative function of this naming strategy.

Seigel is a Jewish name. It is the name of the Levite. Our protagonist's
father is Jewish. Cleanth is a Greek name. An odd name for a Jewish boy.
Sort of like Dedelus.
Remember, in PA Stephen goes to college and is teased by the other boyz
and by his instructors. What kinda name is that? What is your father? Is
he a lawyer? Greek? 
 
But Cleanth's Mother was a Catholic. 
At the ripe old age of 19 she quit the Roman church after drinking
bootleg beer in her railroad apartment in Hell's Kitchen where she
struggled with her soul and refuted Aquinas. So, Siegel's Mother names
him Cleanth after Cleanthes the Greek Stoic and the boy has to live with
it. The Pynchon irony here is intertextual. The boyz at school tease
Cleanth calling him Stephen (Dedalus). A house divided. Cleanth Siegel
has a Jewish father and a Catholic mother (she probably a stoic). Benny
Profane's Mother is Jewish and his father is Catholic (Italian). 


But I'm not interested in this intertextual stuff. We've been here and
done this all twice. Jeeez, and Jules again? Goodness me, boyz, can't we
try to read a story and talk about it as a story we've read? 

Guess not and so it goes. 

T