Thomas Pynchon's schlmiels

[David Morris]

Doc is competent, in that nothing ever ruffles him, not even a bummer
PCP trip.  Its that steadiness in all circumstances that is his most
valuable trait.

On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 8:09 AM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
> Doc's a hero in the sense of "the hero of our tale" and in the sense of his being on a quest (first for Shasta, then for the Golden Fang).  I agree, though, he's no schlemiel (the classic definition being:  a schlemiel is a person who spills his soup, and the schlimazl is the person he spills it on).  He's way too competent at everything he does.  Profane has more of the loser about him, making him more the schlemiel.  Slothrop's  competent, but he does a good job of hiding it (his costume choices are way more out there than Doc's).
>