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

Wed May 22 17:14:20 UTC 2024

The Companion to Lot 49 assumes unquestioningly that it was a simple minort
error of young Tom.

Just sayin'.

On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 12:56 PM Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com> wrote:

> Nicholas II instead of Alexander II? It's an odd error, whether Pynchon
> very deliberately inserted it in Fallopian's dialogue to show "us" that
> Fallopinan was historically inaccurate, or to show us that Fallopian was
> deliberately switching the czars. If the first, I'm sure many people,
> especially pre-internet, completely missed the switch. Why not make a more
> obvious blunder (the dates of the Civil War, for example)? If the second,
> why would Fallopian, who considers John Birchers left-wing, turn the martyr
> of the Bolshevik Revolution, and someone who wasn't responsible for freeing
> the serfs (if that was a problem for F.) into the villain? Maybe to make
> the point that Fallopian was so right wing that even Nicholas II was way
> too Bolshevik (though I think the John Birch comment makes that same
> point)?
>
> Or maybe Pynchon (younger then) just actually made a mistake and his editor
> didn't pick it up?
>
> Laura
>
> On Sun, May 19, 2024 at 5:50 PM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>
> > This is from my notes on the chapter and proposes that the Czar mistake
> > was Fallopian’s.
> >
> >
> >  ! Nicholas 2 !( inaccurate history Nick 2 didn’t become czar until
> 1896*)sends
> > Russian flee to SF Bay Area  to “keep Britain and France from (among
> other
> > things) intervening on the side of the Confederacy.    What were the
> > other things and are they relevant to story? 4 corvettes 2 clippers under
> > rear ad. Popov (probably fictional)
> >
> >
> > Did TRP get this wrong himself or is he putting wildly inaccurate history
> > in the mouth of Fallopian and the Pinguid society , oddly combined with a
> > real but  nitpicky and meaningless possible incident ( Confederate vs
> > Russian ships) of recorded history, and showing that neither the
> Birch-like
> > PP society nor the educated anti communist corporate lawyer Metzger,  nor
> > the Cornell educated stickler for accuracy, Oedipa, know enough about
> > Russian history to catch this glaring mistake? How many Americans would?
> > Alexander II made the declaration to free the Serfs and was emperor
> during
> > US civil war and my sense is that Pynchon did know this!
> >
> >
> >  Fallopian’s point in the story is to make a claim about US Russian
> > hostility and the history mistake makes it sound like he might prefer
> > continued serfdom along with heroizing  the confederacy.“Peter Pinguid
> was
> > really our first casualty. Not the fanatic our more left-leaning friends
> > over in the Birch Society chose to martyrize.”
> >
> >
> > John Birch , Baptist Missionary turned Army Air Force intelligence
> officer
> > turned OSS officer was killed by Chinese Communists in an area they
> > controlled on a mission to convince them to wait for a turnover of
> > authority by Japan to the Kuomintang. He was allowed past several
> communist
> > checkpoints but was shot when he entered  his destination area and
> refused
> > to surrender his sidearm. There is a similarity here to his usefulness to
> > the far right despite the questionable nature of his martyrdom, to
> advance
> > inaccurate JBS history( Illuminati conspiracy theories, Ike as secret
> > communist etc.)
> >
> > On May 19, 2024, at 4:49 PM, Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > 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
> >
> >
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> >
> >
> --
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>