ATDTDA (7): Sidekicks, 195-196

[Paul Mackin]

On Apr 28, 2007, at 8:56 AM, bekah wrote:

> If Deuce is a son and Lake is a daughter, then when  Deuce kills  
> his father and sleeps with his sister  we are only one step away  
> from Oedipus.   Kind of like a Westernized Greek tragedy there.  
> Probably duh to many?
>
> Bekah

The Webb/Deuce thing, and this may be a S P O I L E R  so skip down  
if applicable,

















  parallels  in a convoluted sort of way the eroto-murderous feelings  
Vibe is experiencing toward Kit over on page 334.



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> At 7:27 AM -0400 4/28/07, Monte Davis wrote:
>>  > More of Deuce's backstory, including his relationship
>>>  with Sloat Fresno: each thinks of the other as his
>>>  "sidekick", "each thinking he was protecting the
>>>  other"...
>>
>>>  The text gives us a lot of information about Deuce in
>>>  these pages, this superior knowledge effectively
>>>  distancing the reader from Webb. Hence, the above
>>>  passage begs the question: how will Deuce find that he
>>>  wants to go through with this job?...
>>
>> A very persuasive reading, Paul, especially on Deuce's ambivalent  
>> need for
>> "something he could find either contemptible or desirable enough  
>> to prod him
>> through it."
>>
>> So often, with the funny names and the distancing techniques  
>> you've noted,
>> one thinks Pynchon is settling for two-dimensional cardboard,  
>> especially in
>> a secondary or instrumental character -- and then a ray of stinging
>> psychological truth like this brings out the relief. It has  
>> happened with
>> Scarsdale Vibe, and it will happen with Derrick Theign.
>>
>> On your remark the other day that Webb "is perhaps anxious to see  
>> in Deuce
>> the child he has failed, at home, to nurture": let's not be too
>> sophisticated to give "Deuce Kindred" its most obvious reading as  
>> "second
>> family."
>