CoL49 group reading, early days

[Michael Bailey]

I always thought Oedipa had been married to Pierce but just realized that’s
unlikely. Also my idea of Pierce as an older guy isn’t at all borne out in
the text.


There isn’t anything about him loving or marrying anyone else after her, is
there? So it’s even more like a Scrooge/Belle dynamic.

- Makes more sense as a college love affair -

- Drunk dialing her years later (who hasn’t done that or at least thought
about it?)

- The Jay Gould bust as an undergraduate affectation

- On the narrow shelf in a dorm room is closer to being understandable,
than had they been married living in a house with plenty of room

- Making her executrix - more likely as an old flame than if she had been
his spouse

- Even an inattentive ex-spouse would probably know more about Pierce’s
businesses than Oedipa does, going in