Re: AtD translation: “That mean the deal’s off?”

[Mark Kohut]

I agree with David wholly here, there is no real deal. But I want to add a
suggestive overlay of interpretation,
under a possible extended Reading, possible psychological resonances.

Frank overtly articulates what is a 'thing', the Male Gaze. (the
aforementioned, overrated, J. Franzen actually
uses this phrase capped in one recent *novel*, not the latest). Known to
just about all women long before
Jean Paul Sartre got his fame and words to reify it in the public
discourse. (Ask any class of women it they know
what the male gaze is--even before defining-- and watch all the heads nod.
They know by the phrase alone.
[Too personal: I won't forget the woman who told me "Your look penetrated
me". And I wasn't canceled---or even banished]

Notice higher on the page: "Frank was gazing at her; the face men got in
dance halls sometimes, almost a smile."

"The existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Sartre> introduced the concept of *le
regard*, the gaze <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaze>, in *Being and
Nothingness <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_and_Nothingness>* (1943)
wherein the act of gazing at another human being creates a subjective
difference in social power <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_power>,
which is felt by the gazer and by the gazed upon person; “by their presence
— most forcibly, by looking into your eyes — other people compel you to
realize that you are an object for them.”[13
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_gaze#cite_note-Stack-13>""
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_gaze#:~:text=The%20male%20gaze%20is%20a%20manifestation%20of%20unequal,inequality%20in%20service%20to%20a%20patriarchal%20sexual%20order
.

Stray quips that she got the look because she 'went fishin'" [for
compliments; for the Gaze?] in that "li'l doily joint."

"if she hadn't known better she might have taken his gaze for
resentful"......Why resentful?...Because he felt entitled because of his
desire? Resentful
that he had not "had' her, did not? Is that what Frank was hoping was the
deal, his overt desire for her because of her beauty would make her love
being
so desired and let him? ...It happens to some men. .....yet, she knew
better about Frank, his gaze did not contain that "ownership" entitlement.

And the puzzling (to me) last line: "Hey. I love him, too".......?







On Sat, Jan 8, 2022 at 8:01 AM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> There probably isn’t any “deal,” meaning some kind of bargain or contract
> between him and Stray.  He’s sort of joking, but sort of not joking, hoping
> she feels something deeper than any explicit words that they have
> exchanged.
>
> On Sat, Jan 8, 2022 at 4:27 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > P651.10-17   “Oh, make up another one, I saw you when you were twenty.”
> If
> > she hadn’t known better she might have taken his gaze for resentful.
> > Finally, “Stray, the first time I saw you, I knew I’d never see anybody
> > that beautiful again, and I never did, until you walked in that li’l
> doily
> > joint the other day.”
> >        “What I get for fishin.”
> >        “That mean the deal’s off?”
> >        “Frank—”
> >        “Hey. I love him too.”
> >
> > What deal is Frank talking about here?
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>