SLPAD - 50 - olio of brief topics

[Mark Kohut]

For he saith to the snow , Be thou on the earth ; likewise to the small rain
 , and to the great rain of his strength--.Bible

One problem with this story that is not remarked on is, if it is supposed
to be basically 'realistic' in style, and it seems to be,
then Pynchon does not seem to get Levine's body metabolism correct. A
youthful unfat guy, one with "a plowboy [nice pun] physique"
as described by coeds, rawboned and taut-muscled" does not get a beer belly
and lard ass in real life just by avoiding work duty in the army.
Beer bellies take decades. Adding lots of fat to taut muscles just as long
for most fit young American males. The army demands some exercise and
movement no matter and army rations ain't cake and beer only. Pretty
impossible to eat enough and laze around to lose a plowboy physique in
three years. Many American males are naturally fit and don't work at it and
drink beer and slowly lose that fitness....

On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 4:12 AM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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/
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>