GR translation: reet pleats

[David Payne]

"Reet" appears two other times in GR (per Amazon's "Look Inside"), but it seems like it has a different meaning the other two times.

Page 615, Penguin's Classics Deluxe Edition:

"Got your 'snow,' Major Marvy. Half a bottle shy, sorry, it's the best I could do."

"That's all reet, sailor. I know so many nose habits between here 'n' Wiesbaden you'd need three ton 'n' that wouldn't last the 'suckers a day."

Page 617, same edition:

"Finds himself with a thick red hardon, and slips it without ado into the solemn girl half-hidden inside her cloud of damp black Spanish lace, eyes anyplace but on his, aswing now through the interior fog, dreaming of home.

Well, that's all reet. He isn't fucking her eye's is he?..."


> 
> On Feb 24, 2013 7:33 PM, "David Morris" 
> <fqmorris at gmail.com<mailto:fqmorris at gmail.com>> wrote: 
> Reet means Righteous! Shiny and crisp. 
> 
> On Sunday, February 24, 2013, Rich Clavey wrote: 
> reet, a. 
> 
> (riːt) 
> 
> U.S. dial. var. right a. (usu. in sense 8). 
> Also a common dial. var. in the U.K.: see Eng. Dial. Dict. 
> 
> 1934 in Webster. 1942 Amer. Mercury July 85 Jelly got into his 
> zoot suit with the reet pleats. 1943 Crisis July 201/2 Negro youths 
> will crack at anyone of any race who is nice looking. They will say, ‘A 
> fine queen‥a reet cheet’. 1946 B. Treadwell Big Bk. Swing 125/1 
> Reet, fine, O.K. 1977 Hot Car Oct. 42/3 People I've spoken to who 
> went last year said it was reet good and very alcoholic. 
> 
> OED 
> 
> 
> --- On Sun, 2/24/13, jochen stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote: 
> 
> > From: jochen stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> 
> > Subject: Re: GR translation: reet pleats 
> > To: "James Kyllo" <jkyllo at gmail.com> 
> > Cc: "Mike Jing" <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>, "Pynchon Mailing 
> List" <pynchon-l at waste.org> 
> > Date: Sunday, February 24, 2013, 4:56 AM 
> > Seems to me that in the context with 
> > zoot suit it has another meaning: 
> > 
> > The design of the suit had many modifications, and came in 
> > all colors, 
> > but it consisted basically of "the long killer-diller coat 
> > with a 
> > drape shape and wide shoulders; pants with reet-pleats, 
> > billowing out 
> > at the knees, tightly tapered and pegged at the ankles; a 
> > porkpie or 
> > wide-brimmed hat; pointed or thick-soled shoes; and a long, 
> > dangling 
> > keychain." 
> > 
> > Read more: 
> http://www.cdispatch.com/robhardy/article.asp?aid=15572#ixzz2LoSRmsBK 
> > 
> > 
> > 2013/2/24 James Kyllo <jkyllo at gmail.com>: 
> > > Difficult to translate, referring to a song or two: 
> > > Louis Jordan Reet, Petite, And 
> Gone<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkMIKEykTjI> (Louis 
> > Jordan - Reet, Petite and 
> > > Gone) 
> > > and Jackie Wilson - Reet 
> Petite<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE46zm4yjhA> (Jackie 
> > Wilson - Reet Petite) 
> > > 
> > > It's how the word "right" spoken with a Northern accent 
> > is often 
> > > transliterated, and that is used to mean "very" or 
> > "certainly" as in "It's 
> > > reet cold this morning". 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On Sun, Feb 24, 2013 at 6:42 AM, Mike Jing 
> <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> 
> > > wrote: 
> > >> 
> > >> P249.4-12 ... It is all out of 
> > shape, no focus to it until a sarcastic 
> > >> flourish from the band, and here comes the meanest 
> > customer Slothrop has 
> > >> seen outside of a Frankenstein movie—wearing a 
> > white zoot suit with reet 
> > >> pleats and a long gold keychain that swings in 
> > flashing loops as he crosses 
> > >> the room with a scowl for everybody, in something 
> > of a hurry but taking the 
> > >> time to scan faces and bodies, head going side to 
> > side, methodical, a little 
> > >> ominous. He stops at last in front of Slothrop, 
> > who’s putting together a 
> > >> Shirley Temple for himself. 
> > >> 
> > >> What are "reet pleats"? Specifically, what is 
> > the meaning of the word 
> > >> "reet" here? I am having trouble finding an 
> > appropriate translation. 
> > >> 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > http://www.last.fm/user/Auto_Da_Fe 
> > > http://www.pop.nu/en/show_collection.asp?user=2412 
> > > http://www.librarything.com/profile/Auto_Da_Fe 
> > > http://www.thedetails.co.uk/ 
> > > http://www.songkick.com/users/Auto_Da_Fe 
> > > http://big-game.tumblr.com/ 
> >