AtdTDA: 38 p. 1066 La Jarreti�re

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

          From the Pynchonwiki:

          "J'ai Deux Amants"
          French: I have two lovers.

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Which in fact, turned out to be true.

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          Sacha Guitry (1885-1957) was a French film actor and director.
          The Guitry production in question is "l'Amour masqué", first staged
          in 1923. André Messager wrote the music and Yvonne Printemps, 
          Guitry's wife, sang it.

          'Jour:—For Bonjour. French: Hello.

          Scyuzay mwah—For Excusez-moi. French: Excuse me.
          ain't you that La Jarretière?

          In V. she died graphically around the time of the World War. 
          Her stage name is French: The Garter.

          succès de scandale—French, literally: success of scandal. 
          In this case, the hype that the show needed to put customers 
          in the seats.     

A return to a scene in V., La Jarretière was the virgin to be sacrificed
in a parody rendition of the "succès de scandale" of the Rite of Spring
—the very definition of modernism, the sonic equivalent of cubism. 
Here the pretty young thing explains it was all to tilllate "the eternally-
adolescent male mind", an echo of:

          My reading at the time also included many Victorians, 
          allowing World War I in my imagination to assume the shape 
          of that attractive nuisance to dear to adolescent minds, the 
          apocalyptic showdown."

          Slow Learner, 18

Of course, it is also the most obvious back reference to V. imaginable.

It has been said that Against the Day is, among other things, a parody 
of a "Pynchon Novel", it is certainly the "Gamiest." Here is a contin-
uation of a little thread from  V., something close to an apology. 
The Crying of Lot 49's paranoia [with jokes] is all over the place in AtD,
particularly in that Oedipal scene, I just love ". . .my harmless little intraterrestrial scherzo. . . ." in reference to "The Chums of Chance
in the Bowels of the Earth", that little dig pointing [projected?] to
Vineland. As for Mason & Dixon, I've got to pull that off the shelf, 
toot-suite but don't forget the dogs, Pugnax a fabluist creation in
the spirit of that blinking L.E.D. . Ah, but then there's Gravity's Rainbow 
and scads of parodies, embellishments and other mindless pleasures.

The biggest, weirdest echo of previous [preterite?] work by Pynchon 
is yet to come.

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More from the Pynchonwiki:

          Mon Dieu! . . . que les hommes sont bêtes—French: 
          My God, how stupid men are.

          a line in the aforementioned song "j'ai deux amants", 
          it is also a line in Offenbach's operetta La Perichole.

          Fossettes l'Enflammeuse—French: Dimples, the Inflamer. 
          "Fossettes" has verbal echoes (as foreshadowing sound, 
          so to speak) of [Bob] Fosse, much later American 
          choreographer and director.

          Jean-Raoul Oeuillade—The surname is the name of a restaurant 
          and a wine grape. It also appears to be a French misspelling of 
          œillade = wink, leer.

          Dimples—R. Wilshire knows you can print a one-word 
          title in bigger letters than a whole phrase.
          He's also the producer of such highbrow fare as African 
          Antics, Shanghai Scampers and Roguish Redheads.

          Solange St.-Emilion—'Solange' is the name of a saint; 
          and St. Emilion is a wine - a claret, a British term for a Bordeaux.

          Casse-cou . . . n'importe quoi!—
          Daredevil, that's me. 
          / This little don't-give-a-damn. 
          / Daredevil, husband, your women, 
          / All the other men, no matter who!