"He thinks he's hallucinating"

[alice wellintown]

When you create the ambiguity, in this case. In this opening of the
novel, Pynchon follows the conventions of dialogue. Her statement is
directed to Doc. Pynchon puts the statement in quotes and has Doc
reply, again, the statement is inside quotation marks. As the
narrative moves into free indirect style and Doc's thoughts are
conveyed to the reader, Pynchon again follows the convention and drops
the quotation marks. There is no ambiguity. Again, ambiguity is a
deliberate technique we attribute to the author not the reader. In
this example, what you are calling ambiguity is not ambiguity. What is
it? It's your reading of the text. Is it a good reading? I'd say, no.
It's a weak and poor reading. I would go so far as to say it is a
misreading. Nothing wrong with misreadings, but we should not
attribute them to authorial ambiguity. Nothing wrong with misreadings,
in fact, some are good, no, some are great. Bu this is not one of
those. Here we have an error. Pynchon uses the conventions to tell the
reader how to read the diaologe and you choose to ignore them and
misread the dialoge. What makes it poorer still is that you attribute
it to the author.



On Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 2:24 PM,  <bandwraith at aol.com> wrote:
> It's certainly dialogue, but it's not clear to me
> doc hears it. It could be directed to him, to
> herself, or, to someone else. Doc's response
> would work either way. Once he recognizes
> her, his 'Just the new package I guess' could
> be offered as an explanation/apology for not
> recognizing her, and would make sense even
> if he didn't hear the comment about hallucination.
>
> Pynchon fiction work best for me when he
> creates ambiguity.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Sun, Jan 9, 2011 2:12 pm
> Subject: Re: "He thinks he's hallucinating"
>
>
> see p.32-33 How Fiction Works, Wood James.
>
> She came along the alley and up the back steps the way she always used
> to. Doc hadn't seen her for over a year. Nobody had. Back then it was
> always sandals, bottom half a flower-print bikini, faded Country Joe &
> the Fish t-shirt. Tonight she was all in flatland gear, hair a lot
> shorter than he remembered, looking just like she swore she'd never
> look.
>
> 'That you, Shasta?'
>
> 'Thinks he's hallucinating.'
>
> 'Just the new package I guess.'
>
> They stood in the street light through the kitchen window there'd
> never been much point in putting curtains over and listened to the
> thumping of the surf from down the hill. Some nights, when the wind
> was right, you could hear the surf all over town.
>
> 'Need your help, Doc.'
>
> 'You know I have an office now? just like a day job and everything?'
>
> 'I looked in the phone book, almost went over there. But then I
> thought, better for everybody if this looks like a secret rendevous.'
>
> ****Okay, nothing romantic tonight. Bummer. But it still might be a
> payin gig.**** (here we have the narrative "aside", if you want to use
> the old dramatic term).
>
>
>  'Somebody's keepin' a close eye?'
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 1:45 PM,  <bandwraith at aol.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: bandwraith <bandwraith at aol.com>
>> To: alicewellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
>> Sent: Sun, Jan 9, 2011 1:45 pm
>> Subject: Re: "He thinks he's hallucinating"
>>
>>
>> I don't have the book with me. What's the
>> exact quote?
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
>> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Sent: Sun, Jan 9, 2011 1:39 pm
>> Subject: Re: "He thinks he's hallucinating"
>>
>>
>> If it were an aside Doc would not hear it. He does hear it, and he
>> replies to it. Also, I don't read it as a conventional aside because
>> it does not divulge inner thoughts or feelings to the audience.
>> Moreover, it is not kept from the other characters or actors, in this
>> case, Doc. Also, the aside conveys some truth to the audience. Doc is
>> not hallucinating. He does not think he is hallucinating.
>>
>> It's dialogue. She is talking to Doc. He replies. The situation is a
>> bit awkward as Shasta has been gone a long time and some things went
>> down that make her return now, asking for help, uncomfortable; she is
>> trying to ease into the big question and the story she wants to tell.
>> She drops the subject pronoun. This is common in the speech of the
>> characters in the novel and common in American dialogue. An aside
>> might drop the quotation marks and either keep the subject pronoun "He
>> thinks he's..." or even use the subject proper noun, "Doc thinks
>> he's..."
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>