Re: BEg2 ch 21 the name of the bar // where’s the Xerox?

[Mark Kohut]

This is just a short post to comment on the artistic smoothness of the
remarks. Sitcom-like,
those 30s-40s movies of back-and-forth banter and repartee, w flirting and
more hints of
flirting.....
How did an old writer get this young hip feel in the dialogue? Genius, I
know.

On Sun, Feb 27, 2022 at 2:11 AM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Vodkascript - and all the techies are sitting around listening to
> Driscoll’s disconsolate song.
> Catering to the decadent and enervating trends of the West? Just like back
> during the Cold War.
>
> It’d be comparatively easy to puff out a theory of BE as cognizant of a
> Russianizing trend among the phenomena of “début de siècle” NYC, wouldn’t
> it?
>
>
>
>
>
> Anent Conkling’s pic of Hitler bearing 4711 cologne:
>
> a complex, multiple flashback - about which fellow anoraks are probably as
> excited as I am!!!!
>
> “ After the set, Driscoll waves and comes over.
>
>          “Driscoll, Heidi, and this is Conkling.”
>
>          “Oh, sure, the guy with the Hitler,” quick look at Maxine, “uh,
> thing. How’d that work out?”
>
>
>          “Hitler,” Heidi violently with the eyelashes, scattering pieces of
> mascara, as if it’s a pop star she and Conkling might have in common.
>
>
>          Fuck here we go, Maxine half-subvocalizes, having *only herself
> recently learned* of
>             Conkling’s longtime obsession with, not so much Hitler in
> general as the even more
>             focused question of, what did Hitler smell like? Exactly? “I
> mean obviously like a
>             vegetarian, like a nonsmoker, but . . . what was Hitler’s
> cologne, for example?”
>
>
> < Maxine already knew >
>
>          “I always figured it was 4711,” Heidi taking her beat a little
> faster than a normal
>             person might.
>
>
>          Conkling is instantly mesmerized….”
>
> We’re obviously in Vodkascript, witnessing the first flush of Conkling
> crushing on Heidi.
>
> (this occurs on page 235 of 470 (Nook edition) halfway through the book -
> that is just a sidebar, afaik)
>
>
> Pg 236, after Conkling rattles on and reaches a fine pitch of madness,
> claiming the 4711 connection was part of a Hitler - Dönitz special bond -
>
> “Conkling,” Maxine gently *and not for the first time*, “that doesn’t make
> Hitler a big U-boat lover, by that point there was nobody else he trusted,
> and somehow, the logic here?”
>
>
> < “And not for the first time” pries us out of the present into a
> compression of a series of conversations: >
>
>          At first, assuming Conkling was only developing a thesis out loud,
> Maxine was willing to cut him some slack. But soon she began to grow
> vaguely alarmed, recognizing, behind a pose of wholesome curiosity, the
> narrow stare of the zealot. *At some point *he showed Maxine a “period
> press photo”
>
> < - at some point - Whereupon she took the Xerox, in her office, where
> they’ve been meeting
>
> < And sometime later, handed it to Driscoll, who found a similar photo
> without the 4711, and explained to Maxine how easy that would be to fake.
> We know this is a different time and place because Maxine asks Driscoll, >
>
> “Think there’s any point in telling Conkling any of this?”
>
>          “Depends where he got the picture from and how much he spent.”
>
> < and then, at a 3rd unspecified place and time, “not shy,” she did reveal
> to Conkling the likely fakery, and did ask him where he got the picture >
>
> “Swap meets . . . New Jersey . . . you know how there’s always Nazi
> memorabilia . . . Look, there could be an explanation—it could still be a
> genuine Nazi propaganda photo, right? which they altered themselves, for a
> poster or . . .”
>
>
>          “You’d still need to get it expertized— Oh, Conkling, there’s
> somebody on the other
>             line here, I have to take this.”
>
>  Maxine has tried since to keep their conversations professional. Conkling
> does ease
>             up some with the Hitler references, but it only makes Maxine
> nervous. Wild talents
>             like überschnozz here, she learned long ago at the New York
> campus of Fraud University,
>             can often be nutcases also. “
>
> < suddenly someone appears at the turnstile, and we are back in the
> Vodkascript bar with Heidi >
>
>          Heidi of course thinks it’s cute. When Conkling slides off to the
> toilet, she leans
>             till their heads are touching and murmurs, “So Maxine, is there
> an issue here?”
>
>
>         Two conversations out of a series with Conkling, and one with
> Driscoll, all flashed back to, from their table at Vodkascript.
>
>
>          She may do her best detecting in bathrooms, but she does some
> fancy thinking in bars as well.
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>