CoL49 group reading ch 3: 33, 34 - drip-dry is right

[Michael Bailey]

No, you’re totally right -
Tried to buy the e-book so I could copy & paste

but there was a fail of some kind

so I was using the paperback & in the short time between looking at the
page & typing at my phone there was slippage.

The text says “drip-dry” not Sta-Prest




On Sun, May 19, 2024 at 12:44 PM Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com> wrote:

> Then Mike Fallopian, a “frail young man in a Sta-Prest suit” ...
>
> I'm reading an old, tattered Bantam paperback version (13th printing,
> November 1976), and on p. 31, the text is: "a frail young man in a drip-dry
> suit" ... When was the change made? Drip dry (no need to put in the dryer,
> is a different concept than Sta-Prest (no need to iron).
>
> Also, the cross-edition error of confusing Czar Alexander II (who freed
> the serfs in 1861) with Czar Nicholas II, who's best known for being
> murdered by the Bolsheviks. A deliberate error on Fallopian's part? Or
> Pynchon's?
>
> On another note, I noticed for the first time (unobservant!) a citation:
>
> A portion of this novel was first published in ESQUIRE magazine under the
> title "The World (This One), the Flesh (Mrs. Oedpia Maas) and the Testament
> of Pierce Inverarity." Another portion has appeared in CAVALIER.
>
> Cavalier was a Playboy-like publication with fiction and nudies.
> Apparently the excerpt was called "The Shrink Flips." Anyone read either
> excerpt?
>
> Laura
>
> On Sun, May 19, 2024 at 4:23 AM Michael Bailey <
> michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> “Report all obscene mail to your potsmaster”
>> This postmark raises questions.
>>
>> As she thinks later (I seem to recall) Pierce was rich enough to
>> commission
>> all kinds of fuckery.
>>
>> So if Wendell put the letter in their mailbox for the US post to pick up -
>> a Pierce myrmidon could easily have intercepted it.
>>
>> Or it could just be a misprint.
>>
>> Metzger interprets it literally - and I think the idea of a potsmaster is
>> somewhat pleasing, with which I think she shows concurrence by tossing a
>> brassiere at him instead of something harder.
>>
>> - the question of Pierce hovers over the whole story - did he set all this
>> stuff up? If so, why? Is it having the desired effect, or are her mental
>> gyrations different than what he might have wanted?
>>
>> Why did she cry when Metzger told her Pierce said she wouldn’t be easy?
>>
>> Who is this Metzger anyway? He says he wasn’t close to PI, just drew up
>> the
>> will. But if Pierce was confiding about Oedipa’s “easiness” (which is
>> tough
>> to construe as anything other than sexual) then he must’ve expected their
>> tryst; indeed, he may have directed it. Purchased it, to put it baldly.
>> Although it’s also tough to imagine Metzger raising objections or his
>> price, isn’t it?
>>
>> Why is she staying at a cheap motel? She didn’t check in with Pierce’s
>> people and no credit card was mentioned as coming with the notification,
>> was it? So she would’ve at least checked in with her own money - but since
>> Metzger was motivated (& presumably paid) enough to track her down,
>> Pierce’s funds would probably come into play. What’s an executrix role
>> without a few perks?
>>
>> That such a room would have a walk-in closet would seem unlikely, but the
>> gyrations with the dresser prove that description was exaggerated.
>>
>> Their restlessness when the room “became impossible” leads them out of the
>> Paranoids’ purview in search of strong drink, to a bar called “The Scope.”
>>
>> The nose-picking nerds in The Scope resent them when they walk in, but the
>> bartender explains the electronic music setup.
>>
>> Metzger asks questions as if unfamiliar, but if he’s doing all this at
>> Pierce’s behest, he’s actually brought her there on purpose, and would
>> know
>> already.
>> - unless Pierce just told him to bring her there & he’d never been before
>>
>> Then Mike Fallopian, a “frail young man in a Sta-Prest suit” invites
>> himself to join their party, with a pitch for the Peter Pinguid Society.
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>