VLVL The Pisk Sisters--JAPs?

[Terrance]

davemarc wrote:
> 
> From: Terrance <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
> 
> > it's
> > obvious that too are the target of Pynchon's satire,
> 
> I agree that Pynchon portrays the sisters satirically or at least comically.

All the characters in this novel are portrayed comically.  

Are the Mouth Sisters satirized to the same degree as the other members
of the 24fps (i.e., Sledge, Howie, Mirage)? 


I don't think so.  P's satire regarding the violent "smash the state"
and "power to the people" bomb making wing of the collective is quite
harsh. Sledge, Mirage, Howie are not subjected to the same harsh satire. 



> 
> > Although they are from NYC, they probably grew up
> > more like Owlglass (a Long Islander)  than Benny (who grew up in NYC)
> > ...  we don't know ... we're not told ... but they were and are
> > certainly not as working class
> > poor as Prairie or her dear friend Che or her boy friend I-24 or any of
> > her other pals.  The Mouth Sisters never were working class poor. That's
> > obvious enough. And, even after some fairly volatile economic periods of
> > the '70's and early '80's, after a divorce for Ditzah (usually a big red
> > number on the balance sheet), she is still solvent and financially
> > better off than
> > most people in the U.S.A.  The Mouth Sisters are members of the
> > privileged college or professional class.
> 
> There's some fishing around here on the way to that last sentence. At this
> point in the book, I would agree that it's hard to tell what their economic
> background is. There's no sense in taking Ditzah's post-divorce economic
> solvency in the 1980s and then using it to make the retroactive claim that,
> that decades earlier, she and her sister came from privileged backgrounds. 


Her current financial status is important. Compare her with Frenesi and
Zoyd. 
With Ralph and DL. She did OK considering she was such a violent radical
who tried to smash the state. The financial status of the characters in
significant. How many poor women were in college then? The Mouth Sisters
were never poor and they aren't now. 


I
> just don't see the rationale that would justify describing them as
> privileged. Much of the other criteria that has so far been applied
> (Tupperware, Danish, etc.) does not, in fact, signify a privileged
> background. So I am reluctant to rush to judgment on this question--though I
> do doubt that the sisters were from any kind of very privileged background
> (especially in a country where a truly "privileged" radical of that period
> would be someone like Patty Hearst).

I never said they were Patty Hearsts. In fact, I said they were probably
the daughters of the "true Middle class" or privileged college
professionals. 



> 
> Furthermore, at least in the passages under question, the Pisks
> don't remind me very much of Rachel from V. except that they're from the New
> York area, from a
> Jewish background, and somewhat close in age (though probably
> younger). They might well be less assimilated, too, judging from their
> Yiddishy names, their Yiddish-inflected sentences, and their feelings about
> New York City (Old World) vs. California (New World).

Very good point. I agree with this.