CoL49 group reading ch3 - “so began”

[Michael Bailey]

“So began, for Oedipa, the languid, sinister blooming of The Tristero. Or
rather, her attendance at some unique performance, prolonged as if it were
the last of the night, something a little extra for whoever’d stayed this
late. As if the breakaway gowns, net bras, jeweled garters and G-strings of
historical figuration that would fall away were layered dense as Oedipa’s
own street clothes in that game with Metzger in front of the Baby Igor
movie; as if a plunge toward dawn indefinite black hours long would indeed
be necessary before The Tristero could be revealed in its terrible
nakedness. Would its smile, then, be coy, and would it flirt away
harmlessly backstage, say good night with a Bourbon Street bow and leave
her in peace? Or would it instead, the dance ended, come back down the
runway, its luminous stare locked to Oedipa’s, smile gone malign and
pitiless; bend to her alone among the desolate rows of seats and begin to
speak words she never wanted to hear?”


What kind of passage is this?

I realize that others will probably have different interpretations - & hope
to read about them

But for my money,

a) it’s descriptive of what Oedipa might be thinking quite a bit later -
reminiscing, or a journal entry, or maybe she’s talking to a trusted friend
or a shrink, possibly even a new husband (since we know from _Vineland_
that she & Mucho will be splitsville)

b) that being the case is a strong indication that she will survive to look
back upon it - I mean the paragraph works best (imho) as her thinking back
“that’s what it seemed like at the time” — or more complexly, a narrator
who does know what will happen but isn’t telling, suggesting some of the
ways Oedipa might later look back on this executorship.

c) building upon the foreshadowing at the beginning of the chapter: “That’s
what would come to haunt her most, perhaps…” -

d) the narrator has to put that “perhaps” in to preserve the mystery as a
reminder that more stuff will happen, as a guide to the parameters of the
story -
“Best case, she learns about the Tristero, it leaves her alone; worst case
it turns nasty - read on & find out”


Phrase by phrase:

“the languid, sinister blooming”

languid and sinister, as opposed to energetic and dexterous?

Quite different, then, compared to the direction of the additions to her
sort of Weltanschauung one might expect after a straightforward
executrixship, of which she might say later,

“oh yes, I went down to LA, checked in right away with the attorney.

“My co-executor Metzger was very businesslike and professional and helped
me to understand what needed to be done. I stayed with him and his wife in
a spare room.

“ I went back to Kinneret on the weekends, and it’s funny, but Wendell and
I have started to feel much closer. Absence makes the heart grow fonder,
maybe?
 He found a new job as a social worker.

“The estate allowed me a salary which I banked, and expenses. He’d left me
his stamp collection, which I sold to a nice young man named Genghis Cohen.
I gave him a discount because I felt a little protective - he didn’t seem
very organized.

“Pierce had set up a charitable foundation, and most of his holdings went
to that. I declined further involvement, and after 6 weeks went back home.
It was nice of Pierce to think of me, I guess, but I never will understand
why.”