IVIV (1) Can't Buy Me Love

[Otto]

The title notes are enough to get the message through. It sounds like
a typical American story we know from so many movies & books: the
married man pays for the apartment his girlfriend lives in, her ex is
calling her a whore, more or less, in this case trying to cover it
with professional curiosity.

2009/8/26 John Carvill <johncarvill at gmail.com>:
> (Dave, hope you don't mind me steppin' in here...)
>
> Just been thinking some more about this bit.
>
> "Doc whistled the title notes from 'Can't But Me Love.' ignoring the
> look on her face. 'You're givin him IOUs for everything, o' course.'
>
> "'You fucker, if I'd known you were still this bitter--'"
>
> Ok, certainly Doc sounds quite bitter there. And it's a very funny exchange.
>
> Any significance in the song choice? Notice Pynchon is careful to make
> explicit the fact that Doc whistles "the title notes"?
>
> A couple of possible relavancies spring to mind:
>
> (1) The literal meaning of the song title, extolling the virtues of
> emotion over materialism, that totemic word 'love' which Doc will
> ponder on later, and which was always close to the heart of The
> Beatles and The Sixties. Make love, not war. All you need is Love.
> Love me Do. Can't Buy Me Love. The irony that the Sixties are, in the
> book's 'present', dying all around Doc, and the era of (among other
> things) 'free love' is coming to an end.
>