The Mechanical Bride Thread

[Mark Kohut]

>From P's yet to be written play!
Great. Thanks.

"You know in our relationships there is this interaction of position."

Talk about THAT with your significant other!

--- On Wed, 2/24/10, Richard Fiero <rfiero at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Richard Fiero <rfiero at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: The Mechanical Bride Thread
> To: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010, 12:16 AM
> Richard Fiero wrote:
>  . . .
> > Photo of Eve Babitz and Duchamp, Pasadena 1963:
> > http://carmelosaia.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/babitz-duchamp.jpg
> > 
> > Interview with Eve Babitz:
> > http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/oralhistories/tranSCRIPTs/babitz00.htm
> 
> Oh, man, you have to read this stuff ^^up there^^. 
> Sounds like a damn P novel:
> =====
> MS. BABITZ: I wanted my cigarettes. I wanted my glasses. I
> wanted my clothes on; I wanted Julian to take me to a
> Chinese restaurant.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: So you-
> 
> MS. BABITZ: I knew exactly the one he wanted to go too.
> Chow Yung Fat. It's down on Main Street.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: So you really weren't all that comfortable?
> 
> MS. BABITZ: No. No.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: But it was worth it.
> 
> MS. BABITZ: It was worth it because Walter came in and he
> dropped his gum.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: So Walter actually came in to see how it was
> going.
> 
> MS. BABITZ: Yeah.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: And he didn't even know you were there.
> 
> MS. BABITZ: No.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: Wow. So you won.
> 
> MS. BABITZ: Yeah.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: You didn't win at chess.
> 
> MS. BABITZ: No.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: But you won in terms of taking control of
> the situation.
> 
> MS. BABITZ: That's right.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: I mean, did you think of it a little bit
> that way? Because I'm thinking of motivation.
> 
> MS. BABITZ: I said, "Hello, Walter" and he dropped his
> gum.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: Literally?
> 
> MS. BABITZ: Yes. He always chewed Double Mint gum.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: So what, did he hang out and watch?
> 
> MS. BABITZ: No. He was even more ashen than he already was.
> He ran into Gretchen's office-
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: "What's going on in there?"
> 
> MS. BABITZ: That's right.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: So he left.
> 
> MS. BABITZ: "I don't know, I thought you hired her -well,
> no I thought it was your idea."
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: But Marcel probably thought it was great.
> 
> MS. BABITZ: Right.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: I mean, who wouldn't, you were 20 years old
> and voluptuous.
> 
> MS. BABITZ: You could just like, they were just like, I
> mean, he thought he was running everything and I finally got
> to run something anyway.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: Well, you know this interests me because it
> does seem to have something to do with this idea of using a
> situation for control-power is too strong of a word. You
> know in our relationships there is this interaction of
> position. How you present yourself.
> 
> MS. BABITZ: That's right.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: I think that's power, and did it strike you
> at all that you were using your feminine wiles-
> 
> MS. BABITZ: I was trying to get back in his good graces
> because he wouldn't call me up or my mother.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: How would that get you back in his good
> graces?
> 
> MS. BABITZ: Well, because I had thrown my body in for art,
> I would say.
> 
> MR. KARLSTROM: Ha-ha. I love it.
> 
> MS. BABITZ: You know, I had thrown myself into this game
> for art. You know, I was not a very good artist. But this
> was like one thing I could do.  
>