SLPAD - 50 - olio of brief topics

[Michael Bailey]

The draft - may indeed have been in Levine’s mind while enlisting. As was
pointed out to me, Elvis was drafted, so it could happen to anybody. While
down from the Korean War peak, a quarter million or so drafts were
occurring annually in the mid-‘50s.


I think I agree with you, Huebsch: omniscient narrator here. We are meant
to accept the mutual respect. Unless the narrator’s an unreliable one?
Nah.


De Ridder is a real town In Louisiana.


The paperback Levine is reading is called _Swamp Wench_.

The late, great Dave Monroe found some relevant links in 2002, but
unfortunately they are 404 now.
https://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/2002-December/053352.html

He mentions Mickey Spillane, but I think that’s because Paul Mackin (also
late, also great) previously mentioned him as a possible “swamp wench”
novelist -
https://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/2002-November/053281.html

But that in turn was in response to a panoply of non-Spillane links from
Dave Monroe:
https://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/2002-November/053273.html


While Picnic drives, and Levine reads, they see clouds in the south.
Levine puts down the book & reflects on the desirability of punching the
lieutenant in the mouth, and that sometimes he even wishes he were back at
City College.

But apparently most of the time he’s happier at Fort Roach.


Tangentially, and offered without comment, because I think it’s outside my
focus: this analysis of obesity & Jewishness in “The Small Rain” juxtaposed
with the author’s thoughts about a celebrity called “Fat Jew” - (?!?)

https://schlemielintheory.com/2016/12/06/fat-jews-on-fat-jew-and-thomas-pynchons-depiction-of-nathan-lardass-levine/