SLPAD - 85 “see you around the quad”

[Michael Bailey]

>From the Department of Can’t Let it Go:
…still think blinded’s an odd word to use there, except I guess very simply
they’re in the dark because the love shack wouldn’t have any lights, so
they can’t see. Of there is already a textual hint: after he undressed,
rather than seeing her on the mattress, “he heard her from the mattress,
whimpering.”


Moving forward -

They drove back and at the truck Levine said, “See you around the quad.”
She smiled
               weakly. “Come on around and visit me when you get out,” she
said and drove away. Picnic and Baxter were playing blackjack under the
headlights. “Hey Levine,” Baxter said,
               “I got laid tonight.”


            “Ah,” Levine said. “Congratulations.”


Levine’s night not so different from callow Baxter’s?
Baxter’s mainly gotten his wish - while Levine’s mainly incurred a desire
for more than that.


Buttercup probably has a “walk of shame” to look forward to, not to mention
a likely-peeved corduroy-coat-wearing boyfriend. It might even have been
his car.

The lack of enthusiasm in Levine’s obviously insincere sendoff doesn’t
contribute much starch to her composure. Hence when she smiles, it’s
“weakly.”

Is her “Come on around and visit me when you get out,” equally insincere as
Levine’s “see you around the quad?”

I’m tending to think not. In keeping with the later Rachel/Benny dynamic in
_V._, and a few other “men are sort of pigs, but women love them anyway”
manifestations in early Pynchon, and - it just occurred to me - in keeping
with a later Pynchonian take on the visceral attraction of (some) women to
the violent potentials in (some) men - I think Levine’s met her criteria.
Not that he’s overtly violent, but the possibility isn’t precluded.

Rather than straight-up “lust for the fascist” I think Buttercup has seen
Levine as capable of restraint while in possession of those violent
resources, and envisions him as possibly even more desirable once he “gets
out.”

But this has yet to dawn on him.