Back to AtD. Another use of 'grace"

[alice wellintown]

You were doing better when shooting in the dark, that is, before you
read the section. Give it another shot. Re-read it.   Pynchon humor is
sometimes slick subtle slap stick:  "Slapstick is a type of broad,
physical comedy involving exaggerated, boisterous actions (e.g. a pie
in the face), farce, violence and activities which may exceed the
boundaries of common sense" (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). In the
Wiki article the authors provide a bit of history on slapstick. Read
it. Now, comic relief. It releases the audience from the grave and
tense themes--mortality and perhaps no immortality, for example.  Have
you read Hamlet? Check out Billy Crystal as the grave digger, holding
up a skull to the protagonist, a skull that once held the brains of
man of infinite jest. The grave man is Shakespeare's greatrest clown.
The comic relief, paradoxically (Pynchon loves a paradox) forces the
audience deeper into the grave themes through comedy.


> OK. Just read the section.  Reef's grace is wholly his own.  He makes it
> happen. That is important. Religious grace comes from extra-self.  Reef is a
> natural in combat.
>
> David Morris
>
>
> On Thursday, December 27, 2012, David Morris wrote:
>>
>> "To catch a break" might be another way of conveying the grace Reef is
>> given (or has bought?).  Can you give the lines just before this?  I'm
>> wondering what or who bought this minute and a half of grace.
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 9:42 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Grace used here might literally mean time, but a fuller meaning would be
>>> a period of being free from harm.