AtD: Lew,a moral center

[rich]

not an exact match but Lake sure reminds me of the doomed heroine in two of
my favorite Townes Van Zandt's St. John the Gambler and Tecumseh Valley

"name she gave was caroline
daughter of a miner"

Lew's "rape" seems so out of character like Sportello's violent outbreak
must be that crazed LA air

rich

On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 10:42 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>wrote:

>  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> <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>
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20120224/09a00944/attachment.html>