ATDTDA: Lake (moderate spoiler at very end of post)

[bekah]

Oh, indeed,  Mike.   I didn't even touch the symbolic possibilities 
to the character of Lake,  only the surface motivations,  the persona.

I also rooted for her in many ways - just leave him!  Just go!  But 
no... she's bound in ways by the church and her desire for 
respectability to stay around for better or worse (but not for 
forgiveness - as she says.)  I really liked the way AtD ended for her.

Btw,  just a thought,  but I think perhaps Pynchon tends to use too 
much ambiguity and later reflection (clarifying  parts of the story 
that were already told) to draw really "rounded"  characters.   This 
isn't a criticism at all - it just makes his characters a bit more of 
a challenge to read - in the context of the whole work,  especially 
AtD,  it's probably better this way because  the parts,  characters, 
themes, structure,  plot, etc.  are more unified by the overarching 
style.

Bekah



At 12:45 PM +0000 5/29/07, mikebailey at speakeasy.net wrote:
>Bekah, I'm really glad you bruoght together all the Lake references.
>
>She's a complex character, and I think believable. 
>On a personal level, like Frenesi, she on one hand wants to tame the
>bad boy with her love, while on the other hand, she has a taste for
>the vida loca that he offers. 
>
>Yet there's more: On...let's see, out of hands, so...
>on one knee, she represents the unorganized working classes
>trying to conform to Pauline notions (acceding to the violence
>of the ruling classes, as if believing their authority was truly
>from God, which is a pretty radical example of turning the other
>cheek) - accepting temporal authority under some duress
>but trying to make it a virtue;
>like the person who works hard at a job that doesn't quite
>pay the bills, making somebody else rich...like all the non-union
>labor wiring up the cable network in Vineland...her contribution is
>wrested from her and her compensation doesn't cover her needs....
>
>on the other knee, finding the ability to cleave to a more
>and more loveless relationship not by realizing the high hopes
>embodied in the promise she made in the beautiful church
>but through phases of surrender-to-the-moment, dreams of escape,
>stubbornness and even hopes of revenge - with this aspect of her
>representing, maybe, those lasting girl-promises featured earlier in
>Merle's reverie...and how men, while profiting from them,
>and depending on them, are sometimes completely unworthy of them...
>
>Lake is poignant and worth the ink.  a-and, I was totally rooting
>for her to brain Deuce...and just as glad when
>she restrained herself - little victory in a long war of attrition...