AtD/GR: A pig is a jolly companion

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

Are Edwarda and Tubby the urban counterpart to Frieda and Slothrop?

"By force of what were her undoubted dramatic gifts, she soon managed to 
convince the
impresario that, as it was in the nature of a great personal favor to 
HIM for her even to be
seen with these unsuitable wretches, she wished no recompense other than 
to ... well not STAR
perhaps, not at first anyway, but at least to have a go at some 
second-soubrette part, for example
the lively BANDIDA Consuelo in MISCHIEF IN MEXICO, then in rehearsal --- 
though this did require
considerable and often quite frankly disgusting interaction with a 
trained pig, Tubby, for whom
more often than not she found she was there to act as a stooge or 
straight person, 'laying pipe,'
as the actors said, so that it would always be the ill-behaved porker 
who got the laughs. By the
end of the run, however, she and Tubby were 'closest friends,' as she 
confided to the theatrical
gazettes, which were taking by then a keen interest in her career." 
(Against the Day, p. 161)

Though pigs do, as obvious here, still appear in Pynchon's novels now 
and then, they do not have
the significancy they once had in Gravity's Rainbow. Same for kazoos 
which - though they too still appear there and here - got largely 
replaced by ukuleles. Now, whatever your instrument is, take
it out right now and play along with the following song:

"A pig is a jolly companion,
Boar, sow, barrow, or gilt ---
A pig is a pal, who'll boost your morale,
Though mountains may topple and tilt.
When they've blackballed, bamboozled, and burned you,
When they've turned on you, Tory and Whig,
Though you may be thrown over by Tabby and Rover,
You'll never go wrong with a pig, a pig.
You'll never go wrong with a pig!"
(Gravity's Rainbow, p. 575)

Are Slothrop and Frieda the wilderness counterpart to Tubby and Edwarda?

KFL