Re: IVIV: chapter seven—Eel Trovatore

[Mark Kohut]

hey, she IS a verbally snappy waitress putting down just about All the food? she intimidates our sensitve P.I a bit, yes?

I read the Trick Question joke as a good one: After she disses the first choices, Doc now feels that to ask her what he wants is a trick question: all answers will be wrong, so to speak. 

--- On Wed, 9/23/09, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: IVIV: chapter seven—Eel Trovatore
> To: malignd at aol.com
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 10:32 AM
> I think these are all fair
> criticisms. I think alot of the bad writing
> in Against the Day was at least submerged to a certain
> extent by many
> instances of the opposite--the size of the book helped,
> i.e.
> 
> rich
> 
> 
> 
> On 9/22/09, malignd at aol.com
> <malignd at aol.com>
> wrote:
> > Let's look at this again.
> >
> >    ''I'm Chlorinda, what'll it be," A
> waitress in a combination Nehru
> > jacket and Hawaiian-print shirt, just long enough to
> qualify as
> > a minidress, and with a set of vibes that didn't help
> sharpen anybody's
> > appetite.
> >
> > [What is a "set" of vibes?]
> >
> > "Ordinarily I'd go for the Admiral's Luau," Sauncho
> more diffident than
> > Doc expected, "but today I guess I'll just have the
> house anchovy loaf
> > to start and, urn, the devil-ray filet, can I get that
> deep-fried in
> > beer batter?"
> >
> > "Your stomach isn't it. How about you, l'il buddy?"
> >
> > [the apostrophe in li'l) is misplaced.
> >
> >
> > "If my husband dared to eat any of this shit, I'd
> throw him out on his
> > ass and drop all his Iron Butterfly albums out the
> window after him."
> >
> > [this seems to me a highly improbable remark, and it
> doesn't have any
> > particular humor to justify it ...]
> >
> > "Trick question," Doc said hastily. "The, uh,
> jellyfish
> > teriyaki croquettes I guess? and the Eel Trovatore?"
> >
> > [I don't know what "Trick question" refers to. 
> Perhaps I'm missing
> > something ...?]
> >
> > ''And to drink, gentlemen. You'll want to be good and
> fucked up by the
> > time this arrives. I'd recommend Tequila Zombies, they
> work pretty
> > quick." She stalked away scowling.
> >
> > [Since, as she stalked away, her scowl would have been
> invisible to
> > those present at the table, it's a meaning
> > less piece of information and
> > a bit of poor writing.]
> >
> > << Chlorinda is yet another brief walk-on but
> it's hard to imagine
> > anyone more brilliantly acidic than this waitress.
> >>
> >
> > [????  Where the
> brilliance?   "Hard to imagine"?? 
> What's hard to
> > imagine is virtually anything specific about
> her.  Is she young?  Old?
> > What color her hair? Is she fat? Thin?  Even her
> dialog is generic and
> > unrevealing.
> >
> > It's a woman serving men: where is that dynamic? 
> What do they think?
> >
> > Is the rule that anything out of the pen of the master
> is "brilliance"?]
> >
> >
>