Bianca

[Monte Davis]

Ray:
 
> But Bianca is neither Katje nor Ilse, the Anubis is not Zwolfkinder, 
> and the figures looking through the hull-plates and bulkheads of the 
> Anubis must be not altogether pleased with what they see, for surely 
> this encounter is not in The Plan.  A-and, (ironic tone aside), our 
> (my) fondest hopes are for the two of them, for just a moment there, 
> Yes -- and that we (I) care at all, well, isn't that 
> remarkable? -- and 
> surely that caring is not part of Their Plan either.

Agreed 110%. Preterite solidarity: it ain't salvation , but it will have to
do until the real thing comes along.
 
> it seems to me that the only one of Slothrup's sexual encounters to which 
> he himself attaches any importance is that with Bianca.

... Whom he knows almost instantly he'll leave /not save, and who will be
gone (whether dead or not) from then on. From that Locke review of 1973: "In
all of Pynchon's books there is also an element of soft lyrical sadness, a
longing for a tryst with a lost love. But this tenderness is most often
inextricable from a drift into passiveness, self-pity, withdrawal, emotional
impotence, or it is the feeling that links victiim and executioner."

Harsh, but on target. P. plays the blues so very very well, in both variants
("she went and left me" and "I didn't know what I had 'til I blew it"), that
it can be quite a while before I feel like I just *gotta* read something
with a relationship, marriage, family that halfway works for more than a
sheltered moment.