AtD translation: Bria had gone cakewalking

[David Morris]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cakewalk
The *cakewalk* or *cake walk* was a dance developed from the "prize walks"
(dance contests with a cake awarded as the prize) held in the mid-19th
century, generally at get-togethers on Black slave
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave> plantations before and after
emancipation in the Southern United States
<https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_United_States>. Alternative names
for the original form of the dance were "chalkline-walk", and the
"walk-around". It was originally a processional partner dance danced with
comical formality, and may have developed as a subtle mockery of the
mannered dances of white slaveholders.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cakewalk
Definition of cakewalk

1a: a one-sided contest : an easy victoryIn states and localities across
America, good times are making for reelection cakewalks.— Douglas Foster
b: an easy task… it's no cakewalk to raise a family on two part-time
salaries, even for a little while.— Belinda Luscombe
2: an African American entertainment having a cake as prize for the most
accomplished steps and figures in walking
3: a stage dance developed from walking steps and figures typically
involving a high prance with backward tilt

In the context of this Pynchon text it might imply a mockingly false
“dance” of acceptance of a disputed concept.

David Morris

On Thu, Jun 10, 2021 at 6:47 PM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> P523.34-38   Dally had expected Bria would be the first one to put her
> through this, except that somehow, quietly and with no effort her mother
> could see, Bria had gone cakewalking quite beyond any sound advice she
> might once have offered, playing not only Root Tubsmith but a good part of
> the fourth-class passenger list like fish in an ornamental pond.
>
> What does "cakewalking" mean here?
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>