VL-IV 1 "It!', "What?" pg 14
Robin Landseadel
robinlandseadel at comcast.net
Mon Dec 8 12:06:36 CST 2008
What ever “It” is, Clara Bow had it:
The It Girl
In 1927, Bow reached the heights of her popularity with
the film It; the film was based on a story written by Elinor Glyn,
and upon the film's release, Bow became known as "The It Girl".
In Glynn's story, It, a character explains what "It" really is:
"It...that strange magnetism which attracts both sexes...entirely
unself-conscious...full of self-confidence...indifferent to the
effect...she is producing and uninfluenced by others." More
commonly, "It" was taken to mean sex appeal. "It, hell,"
quipped Dorothy Parker, "She had those."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Bow
http://www.clarabow.net/
Pia Zadora was more like the “What?” girl:
When her film career failed to take off, she became a singer of
popular standards and made several successful albums backed
by a symphonic orchestra. Few performers have been more
ridiculed than Pia Zadora,[4] due to the perception that her career
was the result of marriage to billionaire Meshulam Riklis, whom
she met when she was 17 and he 49, and her poor choice of films
(she earned consecutive Razzie Awards for her first two, Butterfly
and The Lonely Lady). Zadora, however, demonstrated resilience,
quality and self-parody (playing herself in Feel the Motion, Troop
Beverly Hills, and Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult) that endeared
her to many, including Frank Sinatra, who toured with her in 1990,
and as a singer she earned the respect of critics who wrote her off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pia_Zadora
Of course, after all the “Queer” shenanigans we just breezed through
at the Log Jam—nascent outpost of the “Bear” scene up there in the
tall pines—it only figures that Zoyd tears off his nellie shaman gear
in front of his rad 14 year old daughter—revealing he’s wearing
ancient surfer baggies underneath, and a dilapidated Hussong's T-
shirt, badges of an old surfer. Zoyd gets all warmed up on account of
anticipating seeing his bad self on his good old buddy the Tube. He's
re-crossing his dress while an ultra-campy turn on Divas and Starlets
passes before him on the screen. Zoyd pretty much is an animated
cartoon at this juncture. Po-Mo sit-com back and forth commences, Lisa
v. Homer round one:
"Crazy about this, Dad. Fresh, rilly. Can I have it when you're
done? Use it to cover my futon."
"Hey, do you ever date logger types, fallers, choker setters, that
sort of fellow?"
"Zoy-oyd .... "
"Don't get offended, is it's only that a couple of these guys slipped
me their phone number, see? along with bills in different
denominations? "
"What for?"
He did a take, squinted closely at his daughter. Was this a trick
question here?
"Let's see, 1984, that'd make you ... fourteen?"
"Nice going, like to try for the car?"
Of course in this version Homer probably still has hair, is ‘baked’
all the time, is closer to Peter Griffin and maybe Prairie Wheeler is
a bit closer to Haley Smith than to Lisa Simpson but as you can
plainly see this demonstrates Tubaholism in its late stages* for both
of these characters. I love how the dialog eventually turns back to
game show banter with an echo of the dance of Vanna White’s hands and
another jaunty twirl at the wheel of fortune.
“ . . . a chairhigh bag of Chee-tos and a sixpack of grapefruit soda
from the health-food store. . .”
. . . is a bit of “you had to be there” local detail—period detail
like my Mother’s midnight journeys in her rusting copper-toned Falcon
arriving somewhere in the bowels of Hollywood at an all-night
supermarket for Chocolate dipped Pogens and Screaming Yellow Zonkers.
As I recall, we would pass “Norm’s” on the way to and from. In any
case, whoever wrote this passage witnessed firsthand the nascent
evolution of the modern couch potato, stoner edition. A Jumbo bag of
Cheetos and a sixpack of Hansen's [then graduating to guacamole and
Dos Equis] sounds like it's 5:00pm in Redway to me.
*Seems to be the beginning of the kind of humor found on the Simpsons
and their offspring.
More information about the Pynchon-l
mailing list