Austra and the sisters Vroom

[Joseph Tracy]

But Mason is not able to be in Rome. He is deeply seated in his own unresolved inner and outer life which keeps him at a profound  distance from the world created by the Voc. Even the immediacy and appeal of Austra cannot bring him to abandon that inner pursuit.  There is something here also reminiscent of the biblical Sarah and Hagar her servant who she offers to Abraham. Johanna seems to want to bind Mason to a patriarchal role, but he is not much attracted to that. 

The sisters Vroom and Johanna are a study in middle class and even suburban domesticity and privilege. They have financial security and minimal work responsibilities, but a very small world within which to operate, and it's defined by the bland tastes and social concerns of Cornelius Vroom.  Their blondeness, (whiteness) and attractiveness are the tools they perceive realistically as key to social status. Tey serve as an advertisement for a life that is boring them to death.They are as colonized and in some ways more so than Austra who has access to the full range of music, food, sexual pleasure and conversation denied the sisters.  They may not even know how they are being used  regarding Austra since Johann seems to be the master manipulator there.
  
On Feb 5, 2015, at 7:34 PM, Mark Kohut wrote:

> Well-Chosen Quotes from GR and:
> 
> "This is how it's done here - the heady mixture of sex, commerce and
> power - sanctified in a way that brothels clearly aren't, can never
> be. The link between master and slave is sex-slave, Austra's telling
> him. When in Rome ...
> 
> And with this sex-slave-power-commerce trip going on in a sea-port
> populated by rowdy sailors, how can it not affect even the wives and
> daughters?"
> 
> Laura
> 
> 
> This is a well-said, as usual, way I would read it too...to me most of
> the scenes in M & D are very like many of the scenes in GR....that
> irreal, idea-containing ahistorical novel.
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l

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