GR translation: sugar faces

[David Payne]

This seems like a related use of the term, although it also doesn't clearly define it (http://www.balajisebookworld.com/Ebooks/Roberts,%20Nora%20-%20MACGREGORS%2003%20-%20Daniel%20Ian.html):

She didn't need his help, she thought as she tugged off her mittens and slapped them into her lap. She was perfectly capable of doing her duty. The very idea of his saying she had too much to do. Why, in the spring there was twice as much, with planting and tending the kitchen garden, harvesting herbs. She was a strong, capable woman, not some weak, whimpering girl.

He was probably used to ladies, she thought with a sneer. Polished sugar faces that simpered and fluttered behind fans. Well, she was no lady with silk dresses and kid slippers, and she wasn't a bit ashamed of it. She sent a glare in Ian's direction. And if he thought she pined for drawing rooms, he was very much mistaken.


> Date: Sun, 3 Mar 2013 12:30:52 -0800
> From: antizoyd at yahoo.com
> Subject: Re: GR translation: sugar faces
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> 
> At one time people thought acne was caused by excessive consumption of sugar (among other things). Acne could be said to punch holes in one's skin.
> Rich
> 
> 
> 
> --- On Sun, 3/3/13, Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > From: Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> > Subject: Re: GR translation: sugar faces
> > To: "Bekah" <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> > Cc: "Mike Jing" <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>, "Pynchon Mailing List" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> > Date: Sunday, March 3, 2013, 9:32 AM
> > Bekah's gone deep enough....
> > 
> > Sugar faces are faces made of sugar some egg whites, maybe
> > nothing else in cakes and cupcakes, prob avly
> > cookies...etc.....
> > 
> > Yes, thin, frail, fragile....like old punch cards....
> > 
> > Sent from my iPad
> > 
> > On Mar 3, 2013, at 10:22 AM, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> > wrote:
> > 
> > > I doubt "sugar faces"  is something tangible
> > -  it brings to my mind cookies of some sort - 
> > white cookies with faces on them - but very fragile.  
> > > http://www.bakingandmistaking.com/2011/04/coconut-lace-cookies.html 
> > -  but I've never seen a white one -  maybe OBA's
> > mom had a recipe.  
> > > 
> > > I suspect the "files of cards pierced frail as sugar
> > faces"  are old computer punch cards so full of holes
> > they look like lace cookies (white of course).  These
> > cards were in use both during WWII and in the early
> > '70s,  when GR was written.   
> > > 
> > > Surely TPR could have found a more appropriate
> > metaphor, but … . 
> > > 
> > > Bekah
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On Mar 2, 2013, at 10:03 PM, Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > > 
> > >> P254.21   Here Slothrop stages a
> > brilliant Commando raid, along with faithful companion
> > Blodgett Waxwing, on Shell Mex House itself—right into the
> > heart of the Rocket’s own branch office in London. Mowing
> > down platoons of heavy security with his little Sten,
> > kicking aside nubile and screaming WRAC secretaries (how
> > else is there to react, even in play?), savagely looting
> > files, throwing Molotov cocktails, the Zoot-suit Zanies at
> > last crashing into the final sanctum with their trousers up
> > around their armpits, smelling of singed hair, spilled
> > blood, to find not Mr. Duncan Sandys cowering before their
> > righteousness, nor open window, gypsy flight, scattered
> > fortune cards, nor even a test of wills with the great
> > Consortium itself—but only a rather dull room, business
> > machines arrayed around the walls calmly blinking, files of
> > cards pierced frail as sugar faces, frail as the last German
> > walls standing without support after the bombs have been and
> > now twisting high above, threatening to fold down out of the
> > sky from the force of the wind that has blown the smoke
> > away. . . .
> > >> 
> > >> What are "sugar faces"?
> > > 
> >