ATDTDA (2): Nellie Bly (37.4)

[Tim Strzechowski]

Nellie Bly (May 5, 1864 – January 27, 1922) was an American journalist, author, industrialist, and charity worker. She is most famous for an undercover exposé in which she faked insanity to study a mental institution from within. She is also well-known for her record-breaking trip around the world. [...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly

http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/nellie.html

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/bly/world/world.html


And so begins a chapter that will in many ways center around the blurring of reality and illusion.  It starts with the opening paragraph of Chapter Five (p. 36), where the Chicago Fair is described as having "the exact degree of fictitiousness" to permit the Chums "access and agency" to conduct their surveillance because "the harsh nonfictional world waited outside the White City's limits, held off for this brief summer, making the entire commemorative season beside Lake Michigan at once dream-like and real."

When Lew enters the narrative and discusses his childhood readings, he asks if the Chums aren't storybook characters (p. 37).  Randolph replies, "No more than Wyatt Earp or Nellie Bly, although the longer a fellow's name has been in the magazines, the harder it is to tell fiction from non-fiction."

The delight of the exchange comes in part from Pynchon's use of irony (the Chums are, after all, storybook characters) and his blending of fiction/nonfiction, reality/illusion, etc. as the chapter continues.