CoL49 (6) What She was Pregnant with

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Struggling to catch up -- my husband's been home, sick with flu, and has commandeered my computer for work (money-earning) purposes.  Can't argue with that.

I'm surprised no one's focussed on the fact that the "your gynecologist" comment is addressed to the female reader(s).  Offhand, I can't think of any male novelist who assumes or pinpoints female readership.  Aside from being a genuine feminist impulse, wonder what Pynchon has in mind.  Aside from the gals at the opening tupperware party, Oedipa doesn't seem to have any female friends (at least no one she seeks guidance from after all the men have turned/been turned).  Possibly, the comment reflects her longing for female community at a moment when she's bereft of friendship, guidance, or support of any kind.  Or maybe she just wants her Mommy.

Laura  

-----Original Message-----
>From: David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com>
>Sent: Jul 12, 2009 10:40 PM
>To: Pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: RE: CoL49 (6) What She was Pregnant with
>
>
>Robin: "As I recall, there's a- couple-two-three examples [of a narrator addressing you] in GR."
> 
>Christ, I swear that book changes everytime I pick it up! But, yes of course, this frequently occurred in GR. Dave Monroe's example was short and sweet, but it sure did come from one weird paragraph:
> 
>"Of all her putative fathers—Max Schlepzig and masked extras on one side of the moving film, Franz Pokier and certainly other pairs of hands busy through trouser cloth, that Alpdrücken Night, on the other—Bianca is closest, this last possible moment below decks here behind the ravening jackal, closest to you who came in blinding color, slouched alone in your own seat, never threatened along any rookwise row or diagonal all night, you whose interdiction from her mother's water-white love is absolute, you, alone, saying sure I know them, omitted, chuckling count me in, unable, thinking probably some hooker . . . She favors you, most of all. You'll never get to see her. So somebody has to tell you."
> 
>As for the CoL49 example, "Your gynecologist has no test for what she was pregnant with" (p. 144, HP, 1999) ...
> 
>Dave Monroe: "But here I think 'your' is rather more prosaic, 'your gynecologist' being simply a colloquial way of saying 'gynecologists'." 
> 
>And Mark: "And the 'you' is everybody. ....[from early in L49 re 'She Loves You'.}'." 
> 
>I would've sworn there were 3,4,5 more examples in CoL49, but looking back I only found one: "'You remember everything,' Oedipa said, 'Jesus; even tourists. How is your CIA?' Standing not for the agency you think, but for a clandestine Mexican outfit known as the Conjuration de los Insurgentes Anarquis-tas, traceable back to the time of the Flores Mag6n brothers and later briefly allied with Zapata" (p. 96, HP, 1999).
> 
>Reading this quote after hearing from Dave and Mark, I reckon the "you think" could really just be "one would think" -- but in both cases I think Pynchon was consciously f-n' around with conventions, toying with having the narrator address the reader.
> 
>Anyhow, do *only* Col49 and GR have the narrator directly address the reader? Is this something Pynchon used and then dropped, or am I totally spacing out on something that happened in other novels?
>
> 
>_________________________________________________________________
>Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync. 
>http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_BR_life_in_synch_062009