IV translation: spades

[Max Nemtsov]

thank you, Laura -
this is a very helpful analysis
plowing on
Mx

On 09.05.2012 2:06, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
> It's an example of the cornball, racist humor of that time, made allowable by edgy (for their day) shows such as Rowan&  Martin's Laugh In (1967) and All In the Family (1968).
>
> The basic trope:  An unhip white person deliberately or inadvertently makes a racially charged comment ["black as a spade "- (a slang word for black people); "use bleach - it makes everything whiter," etc.  Then the hip black person they're addressing makes a snappy come-back, at which the presumably hip white audience of the show laughs, somehow implying (to themselves) that they're "good white people," in on the black person's joke, at the expense of the "bad, unhip" white person who made the original inept comment.
>
> So Tariq is taking the "humor" of these labored guilty-liberal jokes one step further, by jokingly implying that it's white liberals who are offended by casually racist comments.  But I think, Max, that you've found another nuance that I didn't get when I read it:  that Tariq is, in fact, also joking that P.I.'s are an oppressed group that don't want to be typecast as "Sam Spades."  It's one of those triple entendres that Pynchon loves.  Good catch!
>
> Laura
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Max Nemtsov<max.nemtsov at gmail.com>
>> Sent: May 8, 2012 1:11 PM
>> To: pynchon-l<pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Subject: IV translation: spades
>>
>> colleagues, afraid i need yr advice here:
>>
>> IV, p. 34
>> If Glen was a target, then so am I, I would say in spades, but you folks
>> do get offended so easy
>>
>> this is what Tariq (black) says to Doc (white, of Italian descent). why
>> should Doc be offended, technically he can't be called "spade"? or what
>> am i missing here? unlikely that he means "you folks" as "PIs" with
>> "spades" as a collective name, from Sam Spade
>> i will appreciate your suggestions
>> Mx
>