AtD (37) p, 1047, Little Rascals, casting, method acting and selling

[Mark Kohut]

"The Lightning Rod Salesman" story, ya mean?

Natch, as Laura likes to say noirly, but Merle is not such a fraud as that story in that time suggests, yes? But I betcha TRP got the first notion of
lightning-rod salesman from it. (I might argue that that is the way he sees
Merle's major occupation---photography. He don't seem to like it much, as we know...)

I might argue that Merle is just a struggling victim in the wake of? 


--- On Tue, 7/22/08, Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: AtD (37) p, 1047, Little Rascals, casting, method acting and selling
> To: markekohut at yahoo.com
> Cc: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 11:54 AM
> Uh, Herman Melville register anywhere here?
> 
> On Tue, Jul 22, 2008 at 5:39 AM, Mark Kohut
> <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > some words well-defined on the p-wiki if needed.
> >
> > L'il Jailbirds. I think that this is more an
> allusion to Our Gang, known as
> > The Little Rascals in a Hollywood allusion---orig. in
> 1922---but with an
> > internal allusion to the Chums??
> > I.E. going around doing good deeds, although they are
> not reform-school
> > escapees---although we might call them immature
> juveniles when they start in
> > AtD. Dunno, maybe too too kutely korresponding (on my
> part) but
> > ???[Nah]....maybe an amalgam of The Little Rascals and
> the others mentioned
> > on the p-wiki, but none of them seems to have this
> plot framework.
> >
> > Hollywood ignores real identity to cast by
> 'looks' and reflected light.
> > More 'daylit' fiction? Continuing metaphor for
> America fictionalizing
> > history, life?
> >
> > Cici practioing jabbering "Chinese style"
> for a silent movie. Getting "in
> > character". Hilarious method acting, overacting
> joke [imho]. Hollywood's
> > irreality continued.
> >
> > Merle, photographer and traveling salesman, here is
> what Time Magazine in
> > 1930 wrote about his work as a lightning rod
> salesman:"About the turn of the
> > century, "lightning rod salesman" became
> synonymous in New England with
> > "horse thief" in Kansas.
> > Most industries in such a situation would form an
> association, hire a good
> > publicity man, set things right. But the
> lightning-rod-makers, while they
> > published sales booklets filled with startling
> pictures of lightning and
> > burnt houses, did not have to do this. In 1915 the
> National Board of Fire
> > Underwriters set standards for equipment and ever
> since has urged the use of
> > lightning-rods."
> >
> > Merle is not a citizen of any state but all of America
> is home. Merle,
> > deracinated American who 'missed' home and
> family.
> >
> >
> >
> >