COL49 - Chap 2: Actors and Lawyers

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Metzger's ramble on actors-turned-lawyers-turned-actors, etc. kind of made me think of Rock Hudson in Pillow Talk.  Closeted gay actor Rock Hudson plays a heterosexual womanizer who pretends to be a mamma's boy as a ploy to seduce Doris Day (an interior decorator).

On the face of it, Pynchon's stating that there's no difference between actors and lawyers: they're all out for money and all full of shit.  But there's also the continuing idea of the tower that's everywhere.  No matter what he does, Metzger can't stop being the actor he's always been.

Or maybe we're all actors:

"'No lemons?' she asked, with movie-gaiety.  'No salt?'"

One other aspect:  Metzger's infinite series of lawyers and actors seems like an infinite series of mirror images.

Laura