TR Pt2 ch 1

[Mark Kohut]

Remember our posts on the color 'blue' earlier in TR?
p.281..."the vastness of even blue so immense that it would seem darkness
had never existed."......




________________________________
From: "edmoorester at gmail.com" <edmoorester at gmail.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Sat, July 2, 2011 9:03:01 PM
Subject: TR Pt2 ch 1

TR Pt 2 ch1 onward 

Thanks for the shoutout Michael Bailey! 

So first we have Otto's dad, Mr Pivner, who shoots up 
with insulin for his diabetes and reads the paper and sounds very lonely. 
Keeping him company is his radio which dishes out commercials 
sounding like some odd form of a Greek chorus but not a very helpful one. 
Mr Pivner invests a lot in science and reason and his work which give him a 
reason to live. He sees an abundance of time in his life. 

Next we have book editor, Agnes Deigh, who has "completed" psychoanalysis 
but sounds very lonely as well. Also she just got word her brother died. She 
thinks some of Otto's play sounds very familiar (implied plagiarism). 

Then we go to Esme's place where she sounds very lonely and she probably 
shoots up with heroin just before Chaby Sinesterra drops by. They have sex. 
Otto drops by later and takes Esme out to a restaurant he hates but Esme likes. 
While there Otto talks to a guy named Max who also comments on the lines in 
Otto's play being too familiar. 

Gaddis drops a few lines on psychoanalysis. He still doesn't like it. 

A Hemingway lookalike/counterfeit is at the restaurant and bumming drinks 
off anyone who wants to buy him one. 

Then Otto and Esme go off to see a drag show where female impersonators abound. 

Gaddis drops in a few lines about the timelessness of it all recalling fertility 
rituals. 


Otto takes off with Ed Feasley has been having a continual good time for years. 
Ed was so entertaining that in college when he didnt have any money he would 
entertain his friends by cutting his fists and showering blood all over the 
room. 


Otto and Ed break into some hospital and steal Stanley's mother's leg. 

Gaddis doesn't really bother to write transition or travel scenes. . he just 
barrels on through. 


He also doesn't write sex scenes sadly. 

Stanley stands vigil over his mother in the hospital and strikes me as a 
contrast 

in some ways to Mr Pivner. He is not a snappy dresser and worries over 
having enough time in life. 

He "shudders" at the thought of Esme p321 and Anselm p323. 

Stanley and Wyatt strike me somewhat similar and I will follow up on that. 

Ed and Otto drop by Stanley's place with Stanley's mom's leg who got it 
amputated recently. 


Hannah crashes at Stanley's place. 

Agnes runs into Stanley at a mass and she wants to sleep with him but Stanley 
isn't into it. 


This statement from Agnes struck me p 327 "I just can't stand to have anything 
living and breathing in the same room where I'm trying to sleep." 
By "living" she is referring to a plant she moves out of Stanley's room. 
Also Agnes really chewed the wafer as a kid during the Eucharist and feels 
guilty about it. 


Actually Joyce in Ulysses had problems with the Eucharist and I need to follow 
up on that as well. 


Amusingly Fuller rifles through Recktall Brown's bathroom picking up 
his hairs so he can make a voodoo doll. p 328 

Basil Valentine chats with Wyatt over his forgeries. 

Interestingly Basil is reading a bit of Loyola's "Spiritual Exercises" which 
sound in the context of this chapter like another form of self-help similar to 
Mr Pivner's self-help/motivational books and also like Agnes Deigh's history of 
psychoanalysis. 


All these "selves" seeking means or ends to do. . . something. 

"Love its scarred steel jaws edged with broken teeth." 341 

Mr Pivner, Agnes, Otto, and Esme all sound very lonely and sad. 

Stanley is kind of depressing too but sounds like a good guy. 

Wyatt needs to change jobs. 

ed
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