pynchon-l-digest V2 #12198

[Doug Millison]

GR appears to leave some doubt about Bianca's actual age, even as it seems
to make clear Slothrop's assumption that she's 11 or 12.

The way the older man/father lusting after girl/daughter dynamic shows up
elsewhere in Pynchon's work tells me it's something the author found
important enough to write about more than once, although I would shy away
from trying to determine his specific intentions.

Slothrop's biography in GR would seem to invite a reader to see him as an
abused and damaged child, who is finally torn apart by various forces
internal and external.  Whether this dissolution is a "good" or "bad" thing
in the novel seems indeterminate, too.  "Is the baby smiling, or is it just
gas?" (GR 131)


>
> Date:
> From:
> Subject: [none]
>
> wow...an analysis to go deep into....I will
>
> BUT, I will just say that even the first time I read it, I did think
> Slothrop was "only" saying she 'looked' that age.
>
> But I had read Lolita first....and I did not want to believe the 'good
guy'
> Slothrop was a pedophile.....I did think P wanted to present this sickness
> in this way-----males wanted often much younger women.....I could not
> buy it as realistic therefore, of course, long before I had heard of
> hysterical or magical realism..
>
> but I must reread and think more...
>
> Just sayin'
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