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

[Michael Bailey]

It was a high point for me:

Reaffirming drip-dry over Sta-Prest (-;

Looking up drip-dry & finding that Cary Grant quote from “Charade” (1963)
which seems timely & even has thematic similarities

Feeling a little more respect for Mike Fallopian on that basis.

Thanks for noticing!



On Sun, May 19, 2024 at 2:49 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
>>>>
>>>