Atdtda38: Our own little republic, 1076-1077 #2

[Paul Nightingale]

If the first part of the section describes a particular moment, the second
part describes the evolution of the Yashmeen/Stray relationship from a
specific conversation ('Yash said one day', 1076) to any number of different
occasions (the next line: 'Stray ... would sigh'). The school essay - its
writing and grading, if not its content - calls upon personal experience,
Jesse at Ludlow, his teacher in 'the olden days'. However, for the female
characters here, personal experience is written differently. On 1077 Stray
is allowed to be introspective, reminiscing about 'a delirious moment or
two, usually in city hotel rooms considerably to the east of here' and
therefore in the past, given their progress and current location in 'the
last corner of the US map'; this introspection is available on one of the
few occasions when the narrative has not positioned her in relation to the
male pov. For the most part Stray is seen in relation to Reef and/or Frank,
even if sexual relations with women are alluded to.

She is introduced on 200 and 'real pregnant' on 201; the narrative has
already placed her between Reef and Frank, and will frequently, thereafter,
reintroduce her from Frank's pov (eg 464 and 920, where the presence of male
companions, 'lover boy' and 'some impossibly good-looking Mexican dude'
respectively, is emphasised). On 202 there is, from Frank's pov, 'a
possibility that Stray and Sage [might] just fling up their hands and go
vamoose town together', a line that might now read differently; and any
desire to evade male attention is echoed, arguably, in the suggestion that
'our own little republic' would be better off without men (1076). On 464,
again from Frank's pov, Stray is linked to 'some motor outlaw' (perhaps one
of the 'peach-fuzz desperadoes' of the page before); however, a few lines
down, 'attractively costumed waiter girls ... [are] throwing her certain
glances'. This latter observation goes nowhere as Frank's attention fixes on
'lover boy himself'. By the top of 465 a male gaze is dominant, even though
the earlier reference to 'waiter girls' implies an attendant female gaze.

>From the outset, and by way of contrast, Yashmeen's relations with women are
made rather more explicit, undermining any attempt to position her solely in
relation to a male gaze (surveillance by the TWIT on 496 and Russian spies
on 595 notwithstanding). Throughout, Stray functions as an object of desire
for Frank, even when asserting her independence, eg: '. no more little
dainty .22 beneath some ladylike frock but a serviceable Colt strapped to
one pair of, he could not help noticing, interesting legs in britches of
trail-grade whipcord' (920). Reference here to Colt and britches suggests
admiration for her competence coexisting with admiration for her body.
However, for Stray, there is nothing similar to the writing of Yashmeen. On
224 she is 'gathering appreciative looks from passersby male and female',
which does, perhaps, recall Stray's 'waiter girls'; but Ratty subsequently
tells Cyprian that '[s]he, prefers, her, own, sex' (491). Sex with other
women then takes place on 498 ('the classmate ... slipping naked into
Yashmeen's own narrow bed') and 502 ('at the mercy of the Silent-Frocked
corps'), all of which means that her subsequent relations with Cyprian and
Reef are played out after her bisexuality is established. Consequently, if
Stray is always an adjunct to the Traverse story, the current section
suggests that bringing her and Yashmeen together has been one of the
purposes of the narrative.


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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l