ATDTDA (7): 189-191 plotline

[David Casseres]

I think Lake's wedding-night virginity is meant to be a mystery, and perhaps
a miracle.

On 4/19/07, Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> >But later we're told she was a virgin on her wedding night.  Are we,
> along
> >with Webb, jumping to conclusions about her activities, or is
> wedding-night
> >Lake an alternative reality she's created for herself?  There's plenty of
> >ambiguity here.
> >
>
> Thanks Laura. You saved me the trouble of looking up that reference in
> order
> to support my argument about the ambiguity of Lake being a prostitute.
> David
> Morris rightly observes that when she comes home with cash it is pretty
> explicit to us what she's been doing. There's the rub, we are used to this
> cultural signifier to such an extent that's it's too explicit. Later this
> 'explicit' awareness is undermined by the fact that she is described as a
> virgin on her wedding night. I would say that this is intentational
> ambiguity on Pynchon's part. But of course we can split medical and
> theological hairs as to what 'virginity' actually means, and whether a
> prostitute can remain a virgin. But what if she did win it by betting on a
> prize fighter? And there is this parallel universes thing as well.
>
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