ATD SPOILER p 262-269

[Anville Azote]

On 12/5/06, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
> SPOILER ALERT: whole book
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>
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> The interesting thing for me is to compare the "bad" Lake-Deuce-Sloat threesome with the "good" Yashmeen-Cyprian-Reef threesome.   Double images of the same relationship.  In terms of the female participants, Lake is passive=bad, Yashmeen is dominant=good.  In terms of the "middle," Lake is a passive intermediary between the two men, who themselves never have sexual contact.  Cyprian is somehow  an active, life-affirming middle (it's implied that he was as involved as the others in creating Yashmeen's pregnancy, as a sperm-transporter) in a relationship that's circular, not linear, and appears to be based on some sort of shared love between the three.  Pynchon may be making the point that the first is based in traditional space (the 4-corners coordinates) while the latter relationship is based in an alternate coordinate (Reimann space?) where the difference between linear and circular blurs.  Or maybe he's just into 3-ways?
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I'm not sure I'd go so far and connect the threesomes with traditional
and non-traditional spaces --- it would be awfully hard to do so in a
meaningful way.  Exercise:  prove that the Lake-Deuce-Sloat
relationship embodies Euclidean space with Cartesian coordinates and
that the Yashmeen-Cyprian-Reef menage represents Riemannian geometry.
In part 2, prove the opposite.  Extra credit for using scientific and
mathematical terminology in such loose, "metaphorical" ways that no
mathematician can recognize your meaning, while impressing the
Literature Department with your scientific prowess.

However, you've put your finger on the comparison I think is important.

-A. A.