SLPAD - 29 & of course he goes on to add

[Michael Bailey]

Opera - “the undiscovered country”

any chance you’d share more Manon thoughts, rich?
Either now or in the fullness of time when we get to page 81 or so? Or
both?


On Thu, Mar 23, 2023 at 9:27 AM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Howdy all
>
> I'm re-reading Slow Learner. it's been a long time and I just finished
> Under the Rose. I would recommend anyone reading it to have a general
> idea/info of the novel Manon Lescaut and the Puccini opera.
> The thing that strikes me about Slow Learner is how once can appreciate
> Pynchon's progression from The Small Rain to The Secret Integration. You
> can see it starting to blossom in Entropy onwards. I thought early on when
> I first started to read Pynchon that he was a bit hard on himself with
> regards to these stories, but being an old fart, I can see his point. The
> Small Rain and Low-lands, though they have their charms, do include some
> scenes that are a bit cringeworthy--e.g., in Low-lands where a woman's
> corpse is hung by a man's ties out the window. Hadn't remembered that one.
> MMV wasnt even worthy of inclusion by the man himself and that speaks for
> itself (though there are elements in that story I like, too).
>
> If anything, it is nice to be reminded of him as a young guy and how he
> worked out the kinks and delivered on that promise shown in these stories
>
> rich
>
> 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
>>
>