VL-IV: Chap7-Wayvone wedding

[Mark Kohut]

Laura:
Nice image of taking a vacation in time rather than space, but the sentence has an odd ending:

"[Ralph Sr.] could take another of what he'd come to think of as microvacations on an island of time fragile and precious as any Tahiti or one of them."  One of them?

I found this: Any Tahiti Resort Guide would give you detailed information about just what hotels in Tahiti have to offer. 

Perhaps the phrase has currency for the islands in the aggregate and 'one of them' apllies to just one island? yes, strange verbal
construction. 

Laura:
"…executive whose idea of power is a secretary on her knees under his desk…" 

I saw a cartoon depicting this in some major countercultural mag in the 70s. Haven't forgotten it, as I somehow reveal myself. From the back/upper..guy leaning back on the phone, her very short-skirted tush visible in front of the desk.  Visualization of a common
'power' fantasy, reality, perk? passed around by real executives? 

Rockefeller famously had a heart attack in the throes of his mistress......

Laura: 
Oddly prescient of Clinton-Lewinsky.  Did Pynchon have a Chief Exec like Nixon, Reagan or Daddy Bush in mind when he wrote that line?  We’re told that Mafioso Wayvone is not this type of exec, but Brock Vond certainly is.  Wayvone has more of a kinship with Frenesi than Brock does, both being the type to end up in the witness protection program.  With his shrink, family values and movie connections, Wayvone comes across as a pre-Soprano.  Who knows, maybe the Soprano write-staff picked up some ideas here.

Laura