AtD: Lew,a moral center

[Paul Mackin]

On 2/23/2012 5:19 PM, Mark Kohut wrote:
> You're forgetting:
> Lake flees home. She prostitutes herself, after her father's 
> rejection, seemingly happy enough. She chooses her man
> and defies her mother too to marry him. She accepts --and likes 
> ---that threesome they move into.
> Since we are on Lake and as an example of what to take seriously or 
> not and why----
> the narrator says she was a virgin bride when she married Deuce.
> WTF? or did the narrator mean it in a special way?
> (Narrator writes she wanted to be the wind; to feel herself refined to 
> an edge of unknown length. )

I'm now remembering a bit more, including the virgin bride statement.

There did seem to me at the time to be some sense in which Lake might be 
called a "virgin bride" but I've forgotten what it was, and doubt it was 
very interesting in the first place.

Also, I think we can brush out of the way any possibility that the 
narrator is being sarcastic.

Something significant about Lake is being imparted. "Virgin Bride" may 
not be a part of Lake's vocabulary, but it is HER state of mind the 
narrator's words express.  They tell the reader a little bit of what 
Lakes's bond to the awful Deuce--despite everything--means to her.

It may be a postmodern novel, but it's still a novel,  and knowing 
what's in the mind of a major character is important--important for no 
other reason than that it's interesting.

Of course I may be entirely wrong.

P


> I suggest this is the narrator---Pynchon in this case---showing a 
> belief in women's living for marriage---
> deuce had said she 'lived for love".....a little prostituition means 
> nothing thereby........
> And whatever those poetic lines about being the wind and refined to an 
> edge mean, the narrator seems to
> see them as something women in love feel making love.....
> Any thoughts on their meaning?  Women, women, anyone?
>
>
> *From:* Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>
> *To:* pynchon-l at waste.org
> *Sent:* Thursday, February 23, 2012 4:37 PM
> *Subject:* Re: AtD: Lew,a moral center
>
> On 2/23/2012 3:58 PM, David Morris wrote:
> > You both have a much better recollection of the details, but at a very
> > basic level Pynchon has his twisted sisters (starting w/ VL, for me)
> > making choices that aren't explained much by personal histories.  I
> > think his women (maybe all his characters) are constructs in his take
> > on power dynamics, and as such we don't really feel their motives:
> > they are too abstracted/theoretical.
>
> I certainly felt that way in the case of Katje, another twisted sister,
> who got almost no chance to step outside her war-assigned role.  The
> exception might have been her brief hook up with Slothrop.
>
> Lake does get relegated to some pretty oppressive roles,
> power-dynamics-wise, and, while she  accepts these roles in a manner
> some might see as docile,  she is pretty adept at talking  back to her
> oppressors. Don't remember if she fights back in any way beyond the 
> verbal.
> P
>
>
> >
> > David Morris
> >
> > On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 2:05 PM, Paul Mackin<mackin.paul at verizon.net 
> <mailto:mackin.paul at verizon.net>>  wrote:
> >> On 2/23/2012 1:49 PM, rich wrote:
> >>
> >> that whole bit in LA in the end is very strange not sure how it all 
> fits or if it fits at all -- beyond that weird rape scene is Deuce--i 
> wasnt crazy about him turning from a badass into some whining wheezy 
> moron but then he turns into a serial killer? its all rather much
> >>
> >>
> >> It did feel a little tacked on. But wasn't it necessary to shift 
> action to the far West and of course Hollywood, plus enabling a final 
> contact with Lake, a pretty remarkable character in her own way?
> >>
> >> Lake wasn't just the stereotypical woman who makes bad choices, 
> falls in love with the wrong kind of men, etc. etc.  I remember 
> conversations she had with other women in the book  and some with 
> Deuce her monstrous husband to be as poignant as anything in the 
> book.  Better than the Reef-Yashmeen relationship--which to me got 
> really cloying.  I don't have a leg to stand on with regard to the 
> goodness-badness axis but I decidedly don't care.
> >>
> >> P
>
>
>

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