SLPAD - 29 & of course he goes on to add

[Michael Bailey]

Yeah, it’s rollicking enough, but too pervasive.

A legitimate chase scene would be a set piece within the book, wouldn’t it,
with a beginning, an end, and two parties or factions physically chasing or
trying to elude?

On Thu, Mar 23, 2023 at 5:28 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'm thinking Oedipa's chase after meaning is a chastening too far...
>
> On Thu, Mar 23, 2023 at 5:08 AM Michael Bailey <
> michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> how John Le Carré “upped the ante for the whole genre” - credit where
>> credit’s due. Very true, but the appeal of all those historical scenes in
>> UtR & V. is only partially from the spying and the Baedeker background.
>> The
>> contrast with Slothrop breaks away from spy craft, to mention the most
>> obvious. But lots of other unique touches.
>>
>>
>>
>> “Most of it, happily, is chase scenes, for which I remain a dedicated
>> sucker—it is one piece of puerility I am unable to let go of.”
>>
>> V. - check - chasing V. by Stencil, great Profane’s chase scene action
>> onboard the USS Scaffold
>>
>> CoL49 - Oedipa’s of course chase after meaning thru the whole book, the
>> Volkswagens when they steal the boat, sort of
>>
>> GR - Major Marvy after Slothrop underground
>>
>> M&D - ah, there’s gotta be one
>>
>> IV - the Vegas getaway by Doc Sportello
>>
>> BE - March & her ex with Maxine in the cigarette boat
>>
>>
>> Porpentine - Hamlet I, v
>> His father’s ghost refusing to describe the torments of Hell:
>> “I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
>> Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
>> Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
>> Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
>> And each particular hair to stand on end,
>> Like quills upon the fretful porpentine….”
>>
>> But also, it’s the name of an inn in The Comedy of Errors.
>>
>> & in Henry VI part 2, “[John Cade, under the name of John Mortimer] fought
>> so long that his thighs with darts were almost like a sharp-quilled
>> porpentine”
>>
>> & in Troilus & Cressida, Ajax warns Thersites, “Do not, porpentine, do
>> not;
>> my fingers itch”
>>
>> (To which Thersites replies, “I would thou didst itch from head to foot,
>> and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab
>> in
>> Greece.”
>> Geez guys, get a room!)
>>
>>
>>
>> Moldweorp from Old Teutonic (so he’s the one who’s lurking and skulking
>> for
>> Germany?) for “mole” unintentionally anticipating the Le Carré usage.
>>
>> “ Less conscientiously, there is also an echo of the name of the reluctant
>> spy character
>>                Wormold, in Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana, then
>> recently
>> published”
>>
>>
>>
>> Interesting article on the Intro in Pynchon Notes from Terry Reilly, who
>> seems less than thrilled with it, but brings in some worthwhile
>> perspectives nevertheless.
>>
>> https://pynchonnotes.openlibhums.org/article/2563/galley/2956/download/
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>