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

[Laura Kelber]

Dang! I thought I'd discovered an exciting discrepancy for us to parse.

On Sun, May 19, 2024, 3:32 PM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>>>
>>