Atdtda35: Don't worry about the ceiling, 976-981 #2

[Paul Nightingale]

The chapter suggests that Stray/Mayva have a relationship (as defined by
family and history) that is greater/more resilient than the relationship
either has with the Oust family (sex and economics, respectively). Stray and
Ewball each ‘go home’ here, but do so differently: Ewball can occupy Stray’s
(and Frank’s) world in a way that Stray can never occupy his world. Then,
Mayva’s photos of young Reef echo Stray’s photos of Jesse (in each case, of
course, the image – a snapshot as is the chapter itself - betrays the
transient nature of identity).

From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Mark Kohut
Sent: 06 August 2012 19:42
To: Paul Nightingale
Cc: pynchon -l
Subject: Re: Atdtda35: Don't worry about the ceiling, 976-981 #2

Good summarized detail, as always Pauol N. Thanks.
 
Two off-the-top comments: 
1) Does TRP try to show the growth
into love thru the depiction of Stray's feelings. We know that, in general,
he shows relationships but.....not by much emphasis on the psychological
in the formative phase.....
in fact, can he be criticised for this separate from being criticised for
'not creating
rounded characters"---not often his goal, imho.
 
2) In the way he carries tropes/notions/ideas to the ambiguous pivot point
does he
give us a limit of the generally favorable view of non-violent
anarchism----in family,
via Stray's perceptions?

From: Paul Nightingale <isread at btinternet.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org 
Sent: Monday, August 6, 2012 10:40 AM
Subject: Atdtda35: Don't worry about the ceiling, 976-981 #2

Regarding Stray's relationship with Ewball, this chapter carries on from
where we left them on 926, Stray 'grow[ing] increasingly fascinated with
Ewball, even though, as she reminded him every chance she got, he wasn't
really her type'. The new chapter's first line announces that they have
'agreed to part' (976) without explaining if this decision has preceded the
visit to Denver; the rest of this first page describes her independence and,
by the top of 977, we find her 'not particularly bitter disappointment' at
Ewball's 'Anarchist view of love, marriage, childrearing and so forth'.
However, none of that has stopped him believing 'Stray might want to meet
his parents, which she didn't, all that much'. Subsequently Stray tells
Moline that she has been 'picking up all the saloon tabs lately' (978),
perhaps confirming the impression we have of a relationship in which Stray
has far more freedom.

If Ewball can easily pass back and forth, acknowledging his history when he
feels like it ('after an absence measurable in years') we might nonetheless
recall our introduction to him on 374, his family 'rolling in Leadville
money' and anxious to keep him at a distance. Here, Moline wonders 'how many
sons write home as regularly' as Ewball (978); if, perhaps, he writes to ask
for money, he does so also, it seems, in part, to antagonise his father: the
market value of stamps (978-979) following the equally precarious market
value of property (977). If, as the narrative suggests, 'he might just love
getting into trouble', one might consider the fate of the 'Leadville money'
that has thus far bankrolled his trouble-making. One might also consider the
point that he has deliberately rejected a possible source of income: to
speculate on the market value of stamps would make him more like his father.

Nonetheless, '[t]he Oust residence ... large enough to accommodate an
indeterminate number of Ousts and Oust in-laws at any given time', a
background defined in terms of wealth and also the conventional family. For
all these reasons this is not a background that Stray can readily identify
with, and her relationship with Mayva will only be acknowledged '[w]hen they
[are] alone' (bottom of 979): that is, their shared history, one that
includes Reef and Jesse, cannot occupy the same space as the newer
relationship they each have with the Oust family.