COL 49 End of Chapter 3 summary

[Michael Bailey]

On Sat, Jun 8, 2024 at 8:58 AM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

>
> Couple more honest thoughts: The whole self exaltation of Driblettes
> direction is weird  for me on 2 fronts,  1) if the text is so unimportant
> why didn’t he write his own play ? And how/why did he choose this play in
> particular?


I found it off-putting, but maybe like the shower it was a come-on directed
towards Oedipa

He may have thought she would be susceptible because of the first thing she
said to him (“it was great”) and she obeyed when he told her to feel his
arm:

“she stood before Driblette, still wearing his gray Gennaro outfit. “It was
great,” said Oedipa. “Feel,” said Driblette, extending his arm. She felt.”

(- so there are 2 things about which she’s been enthusiastic: the social
hall on Lake Isle of Inverarity, and now the horrible play.)


One possible answer is that he saw a correspondence in events that would
> speak to the audience or spoke to himself. The Paranoids  saw it as sick
> but were fascinated, and particularly by the similarity to story of the
> bones in Fangoso Lagoon.  Again that real story came from a particular
> incident of Jews murdered in Italy by Nazis.


Wasn’t it American soldiers, rather?

“For weeks, a handful of American troops, cut off and without
communications, huddled on the narrow shore of the clear and tranquil lake
while from the cliffs that tilted vertiginously over the beach Germans hit
them day and night with plunging, enfilading fire. The water of the lake
was too cold to swim….”