TMoP Chapter 19

[Mark Kohut]

Well-said and seconded. Coetzee can write sympathetic women (and more here, as is saud) sympathetically. 

She stands as human contrast to D.???



--- On Sat, 11/22/08, Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: TMoP Chapter 19
> To: "Lawrence Bryan" <lebryan at speakeasy.net>, "Pynchon-L" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Saturday, November 22, 2008, 7:26 PM
> Anna's relationship with D is, for me, one of the most
> beautiful and psychologically resonant aspects of this
> novel.  She alternates between sympathy, contempt,
> tenderness and passion in a way that is (my apologies to
> female members of the list if this sounds sexist) very
> familiar. 
> 
> 
> --- On Fri, 11/21/08, Lawrence Bryan
> <lebryan at speakeasy.net> wrote:
> 
> > From: Lawrence Bryan <lebryan at speakeasy.net>
> > Subject: TMoP Chapter 19
> > To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> > Date: Friday, November 21, 2008, 6:37 PM
> > A very short chapter.
> > 
> > After feeling at loose ends over Anna's angry
> departure
> > the evening before, D is surprised by her early return
> from
> > the shop. Fires and rioting have closed all the shops
> where
> > she works. Students and workers are battling the
> police.
> > 
> > That night she returns to him again and she is more
> > passionate than ever. She cries out, ignoring the fact
> that
> > her daughter is asleep in the next room. D is somewhat
> taken
> > aback by the intensity of her coupling and thinks he
> hears
> > her refer to him as a devil.
> > 
> > After a second coupling fails, she weeps, "I
> can't
> > go on!" then "Please leave us alone,"
> > 
> > D:  "You think I have been using you?"
> > 
> > Anna: "...you use me as a route to my
> child."
> > 
> > She admits she has sex with him because she's
> afraid he
> > will "... use Matryosha in the same way."
> > 
> > Anna walks out but returns later that night to tell
> him to
> > forget what she said and to stay the night.
> > 
> > D awakens in the morning to see Matryona staring at
> him and
> > her mother.
> > 
> > Lawrence