SLPAD - 64 - Levine ventures into social psychology

[Michael Bailey]

Levine leaves Douglas with an uncharacteristic, though mordant, message of
hope vis à vis recreational sex: “Don’t worry,” Levine said, “you will. We
all will. We damn well better, cause I ain’t
               losing a leave for nothing.”




He has missed the sandwich lady while talking to Douglas. Picnic and Rizzo
are sitting on the fenders of the truck eating sandwiches and drinking
coffee, and Rizzo assures Levine more will be forthcoming.


“I don’t know,” said Levine, “I may starve to death. My luck’s been known
to run that
               way.” He indicated with his head a group of coeds and said
to Rizzo—sensing there
               a curious empathy which had also lain dormant for a
while—“It’s sure been a long time.”


            Rizzo gave a hollow laugh. “What are you, homesick or what,” he
said. Levine shook
               his head. “Not exactly. What I mean is something like a
closed circuit. Everybody
               on the same frequency.”


What has been a long time?
My first thought was “since recreational sex” since this topic keeps
bubbling up.

But Rizzo probably zeroes in better with his answer - it isn’t so much the
actual intercourse Levine misses  as a social setting where it’s thinkable,
as at NYCC.

Naturally Levine has to disagree, but this time only partially, in the wake
of a “curious empathy” he’s feeling with Rizzo, whose “hollow laugh” points
to a certain shakiness in his belief in the sufficiency of his self-worth
as “First Sergeant and longest-winded” in his part the 131st Signal
Battalion.


 “Everybody on the same frequency,” - same gender, same clothing, same
routine, same separation from civilians, constant preparations for crisis
of one sort or another & now an actual emergency.

So, yes, in a way it’s about missing civilian life, and particularly those
sweet college days.

But Levine’s thrust is towards defining a discontent
with the circumscribed life they are leading.