BtZ42 Scene 16, Roger, Jessica, love, demob, religious longing and Puccini, et al.

[Mark Kohut]

yes, we have, once again, Make Love Not War, so to speak. Roger & Jessica's
love an oasis, a heaven, an utopia amidst this war.

Re topless Jessica. Remember the story Joel Siegal told about his wife, the
one Pynchon 'ran off with". So, pretty clearly autobiographical here IF we
believe THIS Siegal.

And, p 124....the room trope.....rooms in TRP being havens...don't ya love
the "Heaves a Sigh" riffing. ....Which ends with a kind of narratorial
intrusion that Jessica's kind (class?) of woman never 'heaves a sigh". "It
is not done."

On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 4:07 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> This is a lovely, dense section, particularly when we enter the church and
> get what seems to be multiple streams of consciousness.I think of it as
> another Roger and Jessica in love section, but much of it centers on
> children and war. And also on the hope of impending peace.
>
> I like Weisenburger's interpretation of Jessica's pre-sex orgasms as a
> reference to the effect-before-cause issues that obsess Pointsman, and
> therefore, Roger. That description of Roger's heart having an orgasm? Ick!
> It's the only cringeworthy moment in the section. To me, it reads like a
> metaphor written by some awkward, high-school boy, wannabe poet.
>
> The  topless-Jessica-and-the-midgets sequence also seems oddly misplaced
> in this section, other than it being one explanation for why Roger is so
> infatuated with her. The sections also entails Roger's spasm of paranoia,
> triggered by a hair of Jessica's lodged in his mouth. But it never quite
> centers on the idea that They are using her to "get" to him - something
> that will become very real for Slothrop later on. If anything, it's Roger's
> fantasy of impending peace - a transfer to anywhere but here, with Jessica
> in tow? Jessica, meanwhile, is deciding that Roger's too cynical, too much
> the overgrown boy, to be husband material. Marriage is not, after all about
> sex, but about long-term stability, and Roger doesn't cut it in that
> department.
>
> Roger and Jessica, like children (him: " his bumpy head like a boy of
> ten's." her: "she looks only 9 or 10), her nostalgia for Christmas
> childhoods past drawing her to the church. His nostalgia, unspoken? The
> Jamaican singer's childhood memories, blending into streams of
> consciousness, not necessarily, if at all , belonging to Roger and Jessica.
> Toothpaste tubes, imbued with the reality of the children who used them,
> turning into munitions to kill other children. Spam tins turned into toy
> tanks for children. Baby Jesus staring up into the face of a king who may
> be viewing him as future cannon-fodder. "Is the baby smiling, or is it just
> gas. Which do you want it to be?"
>
> The whole church sequence is suffused with sweetness, nostalgia and hope,
> though this is a gathering of Adults Only. There may be a Brave New World
> coming, but it can be dealt with later. Not tonight.
>
> Laura
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Kohut
> Sent: Jul 6, 2016 9:13 AM
> To: pynchon -l
> Subject: BtZ42 Scene 16, Roger, Jessica, love, demob, religious longing
> and Puccini, et al.
>
> pp 120-136. I am not going to do a summary, since the map is not the
> territory,  but anyone can
> who wants to can and it should be appreciated by all and with or without
> that, I urge all to
> simply reread these few pages again after following along so far, no
> matter how many times and
> how busy you are.
>
> Because the flag is flagging as it does.
>
> Because to feel the verbal territory anew is like fresh water in summer
> and, I bet, if you follow
> the bouncing verbal ball in your head, you will feel/see something NEW or
> something old you
> haven't thought of since your last reading. (and I'm gonna try to make a
> few new connections)
>
> It's about Love, after all.
>
>
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