Takeshi Re: ATD--How Does it Fit

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

a) Takeshi means either "warrior", "courageous" or "bamboo"

b) bamboo - sort of fits the Vineland landscape

c) if he was 18 in 1945, then by 1984 he would be 57

d) if mr pirate waking up in GR deferred center stage to Slothrop; then if this is similarly schematized, Zoyd waking up defers center stage to Takeshi
(because this is the insurance adjustor novel)

e) but Takeshi doesn't figure all that prominently even though he's the main character - then again, Slothrop kind of vanished, and this is a later book so he's already achieved vanishment, and Takeshi is the good side of Brock Vond (apparent doubles) who does appear quite a bit...

so therefore...
the bad guy we perceive (through tinted contact lenses, darkly) as the target for us to assassinate is actually the japanese insurance adjustor with whom we will be karmically bound up until we get used to it

or

something


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tore Rye Andersen [mailto:torerye at hotmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 05:32 AM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: RE: Takeshi Re: ATD--How Does it Fit 
> 
> >When characters from one Pynchon novel reappear in another, it is
> >usually pretty obvious it's the same person -- see Kurt Mondaugen,
> >Wendell Maas etc.. But what do Takeshi, the Komical Kamikaze, and
> >Takeshi Fumimoto from "Vineland" have in common, except their first name
> >and the fact that they are both Japanese?
> 
> >- Michael
> 
> On p. 175 of Vineland DL says to Takeshi:
> 
> "I keep forgetting, suicide used to be your old lifestyle."
> She was referring to what he had a way of calling his "interesting work with 
> airplanes" during World War II. (VL, 175)
> 
> So in addition to having the same name as the character in GR, Takeshi 
> Fumimoto was also a kamikaze pilot during World War II. The evidence begins 
> to pile up, ne? If Pynchon DIDN'T want us to make the connection it seems 
> strange indeed that he should also include the information about Takeshi 
> being a former kamikaze pilot. That information is really pretty unnessecary 
> in the context of Vineland alone, and it can only be seen as a nod back to 
> GR.
> The case is not so clear as e.g. the recurrence of Pig Bodine, Weissmann, 
> Bloody Chiclitz, or Mucho Maas, but it seems clear that Pynchon on some 
> level(s) wants us to make the connection. The name+the kamikaze stuff must 
> be seen as "a bit of redundancy so that the message would not be lost" (GR, 
> 322) and in light of the information above it's kinda hard to argue that 
> Takeshi in GR and Takeshi in Vineland is NOT the same character.
> 
> /Tore
> 
> 
>