BEg2 meandering thoughts - Ethnicity and Fidelity in BE

[Michael Bailey]

There’s a fair amount about ethnicity in BE, isn’t there? NYC as the great
melting pot.

What with Maxine’s Jewishness (itself an imaginative stretch for the
author,) the Slagiattis & Thrubwells - love making both of them better than
their backgrounds which aren’t stellar exemplars of Italian or WASP culture
- Igor (with old-movie lab assistant overtones too) and Misha and Grisha,
Darrell’s rap meditation on kindred-shifting, a different, somewhat
undifferentiated, awareness of an Arab cohort, references to K-Town and
Korean pop culture; also references to Latin America mostly as victim of
Windust and the Neoliberals. But also that Dominican place Chuy’s.



& one wonders how to explicate the intent of references to this movie “The
Letter” (1940.)

 It’s referenced heavily enough, even more so than Rear Window (which
relates to Maxine’s voyeuristic curiosity esp as to the Deseret) - that
there ought to be a thematic connection somewhere.

In _Vineland_ there was DL and “Girlie with a Gun.”
One could surmise the urge to arm oneself in the face of armed opposition
is not confined to men - Pynchon seems to approve to a degree.

The female-oriented shooting range featured the murder scene from “The
Letter” in large on the wall in the lobby. This could have several
implications: ironic reappropriating of the “women are emotional” meme?
Enabling women to make sure there are consequences for romantic
entanglements? Unconsidered taste for Aggro like Isaiah 2-4 but safely
ensconced in fiction & aimed at simulacra?
(Though Maxine fantasizes about shooting Windust)

Interwoven with the cautionary stories of infidelity and ill consequences
(definitely including “The Letter”) are vignettes of marital bliss: the
Slagiattis, Maxine’s parents, and the state Maxine and Horst seem to be
inching towards. Even Westchester Willy, Shae, and Bruno, to stretch a
point.

So maybe the twin treatments of “The Letter” touch both themes: a desire
for fluid ethnicity in Darrell’s rap (enhancing the “melting pot” theme)
and a strong antipathy to rampant cheating passion (consonant with happy
family, miserable cheaters depictions throughout) at the gun range
Sensibility.