Question: "Congratulate this"

[alice wellintown]

A man digging holes.
A boss says to the man, "Congratulations, only 500 more holes to go."
Man says, "Congratulate this."

Not knowing much about these two, and minus a hand gesture, we might
assume that "this" is a comeback, like, "Suck my dick, asshole." or
"Kiss my ass, asshole."
>From what we do know, of course, the man is safer with "Congratulate
this" because the more offensive comeback might get him in a deep hole
with the boss.

But we can not make this assumption here.

A problem in Pynchon's writing; his ear is weak and so are his choices
about using speach acts. A bigger problem is inherent in Inherent
Vice, that is, his narrative voice slides into this weak ear and tells
the tale. This is evident in V. as well, and in Pynchon generally
(even his essays suffer from it). It's not ambiguity, it's bad
writing.


On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 11:21 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> Sure, but the message is the same.
>
> 2011/2/21 James Kyllo <jkyllo at gmail.com>:
>> save that the "this" would be as likely to be a middle finger as a
>> crotch or ass..   (or so it seems to me)
>>
>> J
>