Bad Sneakers & a Fina Salada

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Face it, Chapter 6, Part 1 is not Pynchon's finest literary achievement.  It's enough to make one long for The Whole Sick Crew.  Was watching West Side Story all that the fresh-out-of-the-frat Young P had to do before attempting to "write" Puerto Ricans?  Sort of a precursor to our trusty Wikipedia.  Agree, Robin, his attempt is embarrassing.  But are VL's Hector, Vato and Blood, with all their "ese"-spouting all that more accurate?

Two more things painfully stand out:

"The minute her horny boys caught a glimpse of the wanton behind the saint, the black lace slip below the surplice, Fina could find herself on the receiving end of a gang bang, having in a way asked for it."

No comment.

Then there's this painful underage girl thing: 14-year-old Lucille, 12-year-old Bianca.  I'm not saying Pynchon's a Polanski, but I don't think his constant references to sexualized teens [the almost sentimental portrait of the child-molester earlier in this book, Zoyd fighting an attraction to his daughter as he watches her sleeping, Merle encouraging Dally's teen sexual initiation] are nothing more than a friendly nod towards his one-semester teacher Nabokov.  Write what you know?  Write what you feel?  I forgive Pynchon, I forgive Woody Allen; I admire Polanski the artist, but I loathe the man, and think he should be locked up.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Dave Williams <daveuwilliams at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Sep 7, 2010 5:17 AM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Bad Sneakers & a Fina Salada 
>
>Sometimes when I listen to Becker and Fagen I think, God, these guys can't be serious. Then I realize that they left the NY Metro area snd Barrytown People to live with the show biz kids and I think, well, they ain't even close to serious. Fina and the boyz should use the double negative. ANy kid from the guyland who took a job in a resturaunt for the summer would know that Angel should say, "She don't like [nobody] in the office." But how many kids from out in gatsby-land could put an angel in a swewer woth a benny profane? I could never figurw why Benny didn't stay with Fina for a while. Hell, lookin at Owlglass and Fina from his world, she musta been maria maria. 
>
>
>      
>