Bad Sneakers & a Fina Salada

[kelber at mindspring.com]

I doubt Pynchon would write or think this now.  What's odd about the comment though, is that it foreshadows the brutal gang-rape of the young Herero girl in Chapter 9.  Young Pynchon certainly never implies that that girl was asking for it.  Did Pynchon mature between the writing of these two chapters, or does he think that a free woman deserves rape, where a slave is subjected to it?

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Albert Rolls <alprolls at earthlink.net>
>Sent: Sep 7, 2010 4:26 PM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: Bad Sneakers & a Fina Salada
>
>
>
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>> My complaint isn't that Fina wants sex.  It's the idea that, because she 
>> wants sex, she's asking for a brutal gang bang.
>>
>> LK
>
>Well that is a valid criticism, one Pynchon would accept. ""Modern readers 
>will be, at least, put off by an unacceptable level of racist, sexist and 
>proto-Fascist talk throughout this story ["Low-Lands"]. I wish I could say 
>that this is only Pig Bodine's voice, but, sad to say, it was also my own at 
>the time. The best I can say for it now is that, for its time, it is 
>probably authentic enough." 
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>