AtDTdA: (9) 262-265

[David Morris]

I take that Lake and Deuce have fallen victim to uncontrollable sexual
passion, lust for each other's bodies (which does seem to fade as
their time together passes).  It is because of this passion that Lake
doesn't want to know about Deuce's having murdered Webb.

I guess a "deuce kindred" would be an "apprentice relation?"
"Kindred" is from the root "kind," meaning having similarity (not
necessarily blood relation), and if your take is correct about Pynchon
emphasizing that Webb and Deuce are similar (killers) what does the
adjective "apprentice" add to this take?  Might it not mean
"apprentice to the status of family" (which he does become when he
marries Lake).  Someone else earlier suggested Deuce had become Webb's
"second family" which is amply supported in the text.

Another take on "deuce" might be this late 1800's use of the word,
meaning "devil" or "hell."
__________
>From Urban Dictionary:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=What+the+deuce%3F

Used in Sir Arther Conan Doyles' Sherlock Holmes. Can be seen in
Adventures of Sherlock Homles which was first published in Strand
Magazine in late 1800's

"That familiar chap is giving me weird looks. What the deuce? is he up to?"
__________

On 5/23/07, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Two partial answers to your questions.....I do not know why, human motivationally, Lake marries Deuce.  (a seaman deuce--V.--by the way is a seaman apprentice, so a Deuce Kindred is....pretty clear).   I do think, however, it is Pynchon's way of saying: Webb and his killers are kindred.....Webb, too, was a killer, as we know.
>
> Having them join the bloodlines is almost too heavy a way to make the point.
> ---
>
> "Some would've said she knew even then what he'd done. Could not have helped knowing, God sakes."
>
> Today's superlative essay question:
> Why then? Explain it to me and the hoards of onlookers. If she at least  suspected, probably knew, then why marry Deuce? Why Lake&Deuce, why? See  also p. 266: What are the motivations of each in marrying the other?