SLPAD - 99 - "Low-Lands" - 12

[Mark Kohut]

I believe Pynchon is on record somewhere deeply dissing Noel Coward...???

On Fri, Sep 22, 2023 at 4:29 AM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> in their now infrequent moments of tenderness he would sing Cindy the Noel
> Coward song, half as an attempt to recall the first few months they were
> together, half as a love song for the house:
>
>
>             “We’ll be as happy and contented
> As birds upon a tree,
>
>             High above the mountains and sea . . .”
>
>
>
>             However Noel Coward songs often bear little relevance to
> reality—if Flange hadn’t known this before he soon found it out....
>
>
>
>
>
> Noël Coward, "A Room With a View" from revue "This Year of Grace" (1928)
>
> https://youtu.be/vtRCsiklh0U?si=5z7IOqU7JnXrw7u-
>
>
>
> https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/4803863/A+Room+with+a+View+%28used+in+Cochran%27s+revue+%22This+Year+of+Grace%22%29
>
>
> I've been cherishing,
> Through the perishing
> winter nights <https://www.definitions.net/definition/nights> and days,
> A funny <https://www.definitions.net/definition/funny> little phrase
> That means <https://www.definitions.net/definition/means> so much to me,
> That you've got to be
> With me heart <https://www.definitions.net/definition/heart> and soul,
> For on you the whole <https://www.definitions.net/definition/whole> thing
> leans.
>
> Come with me and leave <https://www.definitions.net/definition/leave>
> the noisy <https://www.definitions.net/definition/noisy> crowds,
> Sunlight shines <https://www.definitions.net/definition/shines> for us
> above <https://www.definitions.net/definition/above> the clouds.
> Please don't turn away
> Or my dream <https://www.definitions.net/definition/dream> will stay
> Hidden out of sight,
> Among a lot of "might have beens"!
>
> A room with a view,
> And you, And no-one to worry <https://www.definitions.net/definition/worry>
> us,
>
> No one to hurry <https://www.definitions.net/definition/hurry> us through
> This dream <https://www.definitions.net/definition/dream> we've found.
>
> We'll gaze at the sky,
> And try
> To guess <https://www.definitions.net/definition/guess> what it's all
> about,
> Then we will figure <https://www.definitions.net/definition/figure> out
> why
> The world <https://www.definitions.net/definition/world> is round!
>
> We'll be as happy <https://www.definitions.net/definition/happy> and
> contented <https://www.definitions.net/definition/contented> as birds
> <https://www.definitions.net/definition/birds> upon a tree,
> High above <https://www.definitions.net/definition/above> the
> mountains <https://www.definitions.net/definition/mountains> and the
> sea.
>
> We'll bill and we'll coo-ooo-oo,
> And sorrow <https://www.definitions.net/definition/sorrow> will never
> <https://www.definitions.net/definition/never> come,
> Oh, will it ever come true,
> Our room with a view?
>
> A room with a view,
> And you,
> And no-one to give advice,
> That sounds <https://www.definitions.net/definition/sounds> like a
> paradise <https://www.definitions.net/definition/paradise> few
> Could fail to choose.
>
> With fingers <https://www.definitions.net/definition/fingers> entwined,
> We'll find
> Relief from the preachers
> Who always <https://www.definitions.net/definition/always> beseech us to
> mind
> Our P's and Q's.
>
> We'll watch <https://www.definitions.net/definition/watch> the whole
> <https://www.definitions.net/definition/whole> world pass before
> <https://www.definitions.net/definition/before> us while
> <https://www.definitions.net/definition/while> we are sitting
> <https://www.definitions.net/definition/sitting> still,
> Leaning on our own window <https://www.definitions.net/definition/window>
> sill.
>
> We'll bill and we'll coo-ooo-oo,
> And maybe <https://www.definitions.net/definition/maybe> a stork
> <https://www.definitions.net/definition/stork> will bring
> This, that and t'other thing
> to our room with a view.
>
>
> Is the purport of the unhappiness of the Flanges to show it as a
> result of their (or at least Dennis's) adoption of the song's implied
> philosophy of social disengagement and shunning moral guidance from
> the establishment?
>
> Their physical home built by scofflaw Episcopal priest with his
> sideline in illicit booze making a shambles of the "Noble Experiment"
> of Prohibition, and the devil-may-care lyrics of Noël Coward
> separating the couple from their community and its moral shepherds to
> watch it at a distance while doing their own thing - setting the
> twosome up for a fall a la Paolo and Francesca.
>
> I'm probably overstating this, but trying to enumerate and categorize
> some of the vapors emanating from those passageways leading from the
> rumpus room where "Il Piacere" is still playing.
>
>
> https://youtu.be/DTYe6oBOw58?si=B5TuJth7CTATXupr
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>