"Will we have to stop watching the sky?" GR Part 1 Section 2

[jbor at bigpond.com]

pp. 7-16, coupla weeks ...

Where Section 1 divides up into two sequences, (Pirate dreaming and 
Pirate awake), Part 2 divides into three/four.

First off is a procedural text, Pirate thinking through steps in the 
cooking routine and eventually wondering whether to telephone Stanmore. 
Pynchon shows us explicitly how Pirate manages his "talent" when 
off-duty through a conscious and very deliberate step-by-step 
concentration on manual routines. Then, towards the bottom of p. 8, 
after Pirate's thoughts turn again to the sky with the rhetorical 
question, the narrative turns out to survey the scene in the maisonette 
and introduce us to other of the characters, Pirate's drinking buddies, 
and their morning hi-jinx as they assemble for the fantastic breakfast. 
The next sequence is introduced when the phone rings, and the outside 
world breaks in on this idyllic banquet; Pirate's "employer" gives him 
his day's instructions and Pirate sets off. This is more of a 
transitional phase I think. And then, the Banana Breakfast's spell well 
and truly broken for Pirate, on comes his ("hrummp, heh, heh") 
"Condition". And then we are given quite a long demonstration of what 
this condition is, the history of it, and how it is being used by "The 
Firm". After reading this final sequence we have a better idea of what 
was going on -- or of the additional possibilities and resonances, or 
the fact that there are additional possibilities and resonances, beyond 
the dream-vision of a London evacuation scene in mid-1944 -- back at 
the beginning of the text in Section 1.

Four Pynchon-songs in this section: the first, Osbie's, seems like a 
conscious parody of a WWII propaganda tune à la Vera Lynn, say. The 
second, the American sappers' (i.e. soldiers, privates, trench-diggers, 
a British term) refrain, is like a drinking song. There's a Monty 
Pythonesque rhythm to it. The third and fourth songs parody Broadway or 
Hollywood musical numbers. Busby Berkeley etc.

best