SLPAD - 93 - Low-Lands - 6

[rich]

I give Mr P a pass on this one. he was young and finding his way. I'd bet
he'd agree with us. But we get the next three stories which makes up for
it. he did learn something after all

On Tue, Sep 19, 2023 at 9:55 AM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> The tone-deafness and lack of subtlety, sheer clumsy, groan-inducing
> “artistic/symbolic” techniques makes me wonder if this is the same author
> of GR.
>
> On Tue, Sep 19, 2023 at 9:36 AM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm having trouble finding anything redeemable in Low-lands, though
>> there's
>> some overlap with stuff that was cut from V. which I find intriguing
>>
>> rich
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 19, 2023 at 1:41 AM Michael Bailey <
>> michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > “You keep that weird crew down in the rumpus
>> > room,” she would yell, brandishing a cocktail shaker. "You are a damned
>> > ASPCA, is what you are. I doubt if even they would take some of the
>> animals
>> > you bring home.” What Flange should have answered but didn’t was
>> something
>> > like, “Rocco Squarcione is not an animal, he is a garbage man with a
>> > fondness, among other things, for Vivaldi.”
>> >                It was Vivaldi they were listening to now, Sixth Concerto
>> > for Violin, sub-titled Il Piacere, while Cindy stomped around upstairs.
>> > Flange got the impression she was throwing things. He wondered every
>> once
>> > in a while what life would be like without a second story and how it was
>> > people managed to get along in ranch-style or split-level houses without
>> > running amok once a year or so.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Il Piacere is a fairly well-known piece, at least I recognized it. It
>> runs
>> > about 9 minutes, so they may have run through a lot of repertoire before
>> > getting to this piece.
>> >
>> > 8 hours of drinking wine and listening to music, wow, he must be pretty
>> > sick of his job if this is his preference. (A little bit of Bartleby the
>> > scrivener preferring not, although Flange may possess slightly more
>> > volition...and at least he has a drinking companion - a little bit of
>> > peripheral Huck and Jim)
>> >
>> > And it seems reasonable to impute an inebriated "yeah, that's what I
>> > should've said," state of mind - so that this is still Flange speaking,
>> not
>> > the omniscient narrator chiming in with an unimpressive normative
>> > rejoinder. (That entity, I choose to believe, has a clearer vision, a
>> > higher purpose, and manifests through choice of details & vocabulary
>> rather
>> > than intervening directly.)
>> >
>> > Suburban misery chronicles were familiar territory - John Cheever? - so
>> > could Pynchon be upping the ante by making Flange a wealthy denizen of a
>> > beyond-prosperous exurbia, and exaggerating the marital disharmony?
>> >
>> > Gratuitous author-state-of-mind speculation: at time of writing, his
>> > description of a 7 year  marriage gone stale could not reflect personal
>> > experience but rather observation - of people in his circle of family
>> and
>> > friends, also stories of Cheever, maybe John Updike, and other media
>> such
>> > as "The Seven Year Itch" (1955)
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Then this:
>> >
>> > He wondered every once in a while what life would be like without a
>> second
>> > story and how it was people managed to get along in ranch-style or
>> > split-level houses without running amok once a year or so.
>> >
>> >
>> > Meanwhile, Cindy is in fact running amok upstairs, which he's able to
>> > ignore because of the spatial separation provided by both his stereo
>> system
>> > and the generous dimensions of their house.
>> >
>> > Again a glimpse into the mind of Flange as the thought of living with
>> less
>> > of wealth's cushioning  briefly enters his mind, but only as something
>> > other people experience.
>> > --
>> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>