CoL49 group reading ch6 part1

[J K Van Nort]

The sexualization of young girls has been an obsession in the United States for some time. Nabakov's Lolita brought it to light, as did Kubrick's movie version, and Pynchon takes it to another level of absurdity. Still this end of her relationship (superficial as it was) brings up another aspect of the patriarchal society that Pynchon continues to expose with his use of a female main character. Now we see that her "freedom" or "escape" leads to other limitations, as she ages, she becomes less desirable in a patriarchal society, where men leave their wives for trophy wives, and boys compete with grown men for the affections of their female peers.

The TV brought Metzger and Oedipa together, as they watched his child star movie, and the further away from it they get, the less he seems interested in her interests.

I find the scene with Winthrop Tremaine to touch on another American negative social ill, racism. He uses the N word with alacrity and has blacks making swastika bands for him to sell. They are both essential to his business plan and worthy only of contempt from him. The name is interesting because Winthrop is a name associated with colonial America and Tremaine, minus the e, alludes to Johnny Tremain, the novel about a boy during the American Revolution. Again hinting at the deep-seated social ill of racism and treatment of blacks in America. It also points to the California that has a racist history often belied by its supposed liberal status.

Two of America's social ills brought forward with two short scenes. Why is this brought up now?

Children and raising children get a brief play with Grace Bortz and her brood of malicious imps. A vision of what Oedipa might have become? Why does Grace recognize "a certain harassed style" in Oedipa?

More later.

In solidarity,
James

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