AtD: Lew,a moral center

[Paul Mackin]

On 2/24/2012 11:43 AM, rich wrote:
> 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

It does seem out of character for a private eye.

Philip Marlow is always having beautiful, vulnerable dames throwing 
themselves at him, and HE doesn't succumb. (at least not usually, 
perhaps never)

The LA air is a given for all gentlemen under consideration.  (rather 
beautiful in certain lights)

I suppose dramatic considerations required something quite shocking in 
AtD's case.

P
>
> rich
>
> On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 10:42 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net 
> <mailto: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>
>>     <mailto:mackin.paul at verizon.net>
>>     *To:* pynchon-l at waste.org <mailto: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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