"Just piss on m' grave, and car-ry on the show!" GR Part 1 Section 2

[jbor at bigpond.com]

I think the "might as well mention here ... " bit after the long dash 
is just a chattier Realist narrator intervening momentarily. It's 
exposition, a detached voice speaking directly to the reader and 
filling us in on what has suddenly come over Pirate. We shift from 
first person (Pirate channelling the exiled Rumanian royalist's 
fantasy) to third person (the narrator explaining what's going on). The 
tenor is a lot more conversational and intimate than we might be used 
to or expect at this point, but it's not so strange.

Gradually, through the use of ellipsis, the narrative drifts back into 
Pirate's consciousness (someone ... your ... Just hum the nitwit little 
tune ...  Yes--I'm--the ... ). It's what Pirate's thinking to himself 
about his job with "The Firm", possibly on the spot as he is dealing 
with the Rumanian's fantasy -- I'd imagine he'd still be able to think 
and act and function normally while exercising his special talent -- 
but also possibly just a recap. The "I" of "the nitwit little tune" is 
definitely Pirate, and the song and dance routine is internalised, 
self-conscious, but there are also obvious connections with the way 
Pynchon is managing and manipulating the narrative here (leading, 
ultimately, to the recount of "Pirate's career as a fantasist 
surrogate" which follows). But, yes, The Firm did teach him the tune 
(meaning, I take it, that this is the job description he was given), 
and it's all very pip pip and tally ho, but I think that the lyrical 
interpretation and brass band number and top hat and cane and so forth 
are Pirate's own over-the-top embellishments. What's important is that, 
in his work, Pirate realises he's performing as an actor does on stage 
(as also does Pynchon, I suspect).

There's an intertwining or meshing of narrator, character and reader 
(and author) evident here (pp. 11-12) which is a really important facet 
of Pynchon's style and purpose in the novel.

Loved the lecture on Adorno and Horkheimer btw. Ta muchly.

best


On 08/11/2005 tesauro terrance wrote:

> The Firm controls the narrative. It's Directing the theatre/theater 
> production. Pirate is a great talent. His gift is a great Firm asset. 
> And, he can hum and skip and twirl. He works for Them. He will always 
> work for Them.  No one will, ever,  quit,  the Firm. 
>  
>  And with that they clapped Candide into irons and hauled him off to 
> the barracks. There They taught him 'right turn,' 'left turn,' and 
> 'quick march,' ... Next day his performance on parade ...
>  
> The song and dance makes the bitter medicine go down. Of course, one 
> day The Firm will go down too. You know, What goes up comes down and 
> ... the bigger They are....
>  
> The Firm knows that Their achilles heel is silly song and dance and 
> profanity and chance.
>  
> Not so sure we are as They are or as Pirate is. We can still tell the 
> to Fuck Off at this point, but we want to keep on watching the show. 
> Don't we?
>  
>
> jporter <jp3214 at earthlink.net> wrote:
>> And the strangely conspiratorial narrative thrust just after
>> the sudden emergence of Pirate's condition in the form
>> of the hallucination of Transylvanian Magyars:
>>
>> -might as well mention here that much of what
>> the dossiers call Pirate Prentice is a strange
>> talent for-
>>
>> In other words, we are somehow in The Firm's archives,
>> privy to the Pirate Prentice file, along with a guide able
>> to provide helpful commentary on what lies therein, and
>> we welcome the insight thus gleaned.
>>
>>  
>>
>> Well, this isn't so bad, then, as long as we've got a security
>> clearance, and all. As long as one of the ushers doesn't
>> happen along and urge us to "Just hum the nitwit little tune
>> they taught you, and try not to fuck up" In other words, follow
>> the bouncing ball- can't forget we're still in that theatre, after 
>> all.
>> Maybe, if we're good we can have a uniform and a badge,
>> maybe a piece.
>>
>> Just in the privacy of our own thotz...little kinda Zen meditation-
>>
>> jody