ST ch 9 Fancy Vivid, ch 39 Song and Dance Man

Tue Jun 16 19:29:47 UTC 2026

“. . . later, on Entertainment Tonight . . . “

I suppose I might have been doing all this subconsciously, but got into a right lather last week,
re-arranging all of my own books, CDs, etc.. The weather was fabulous; spring cleaning had
been held off for five years anyway. There is now a specific, permanent location for all my
Pynchonalia, with associated PoMo lit situated nearby. Also, a functioning overhead light in
the book closet. All this activity disturbed the Missus. Didn’t like the banging, and the
thumping and the flurry, and the mishagas . . .

Cleared out a non-functional rug shampoo-er, got a 24” monitor at a local thrift for $14 in the
process, perfectly fine image quality. I can now watch all these talkies any time of day, which
is a good thing as I keep very odd hours.

There are some great online resources for pre-code movies. One of the best is YouTube. I
upgraded to premium to stop ads before they happen. That way I could dodge the dreaded
Liberty Emu before he would be set loose on my fragile consciousness, a terrible thing to
do to a beautiful movie like “The Divorcee”. I’ve got access to DVDs and Books via the library,
was watching a bit of the “42nd Street” DVD I picked up yesterday. Then I watched a
bit of “All That Jazz”, another musical, maybe a comedy in the blackest sense, but like
42nd St., in large part about a director’s struggles to put on a show:

https://youtu.be/mSvQtAnh_CI?si=y6bqm6yKlbkoVvNi

https://youtu.be/L2e9acreKmQ?si=LAZqnSm3JCPbnSst

That “Young and Healthy” sequence must have been on the Coen Brothers mind:

https://youtu.be/8CU0dlLfBtg?si=6MMxP_qP6sFLDxUB

Bob Dylan famously described himself as a “song and dance man”:

https://youtu.be/zlmM8IWwYqM?si=8c-ojIQp2GePMaCf

This curious post includes an historically important performance of “Only a Pawn in
Their Game” at the 1963 March on Washington, a transcendent performance of
Mr. Tambourine Man, Newport Folk Festival, 1964, and a rather odd presentation of a
later song, “Baby Stop Crying”, a hit in the UK in 1978:

Bob Dylan released and unreleased: Song and Dance Man | Untold Dylan https://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/22329

Yes, I know, “Big Dubinsky” is a stretch deep into left field, but then again, what do you expect
from this party? I would guess that a lot of folks might hear “The Big Lebowski” in their mind’s
ear when they see this one.

. . . Small hat at a provocative angle, blindingly platinum cocktail bob,
belted city dress with sleeve dimensions seen typically only in movies
dames go to. Calls herself Fancy Vivid. . .

Could be Ginger Rodgers in 42nd. Street.

Fancy comes in with Skeet, trying to find main squeeze Stuffy Keegan who's currently
underwater and in hot water with the Feds, among others. Skeet concludes the book by
telling Hicks he’s headed to Hollywood with Zinnia:

. . . You remember Zinnia, she gave me that glow-in-the-dark watch?
I’ve been teaching her how to get on and off slow freights, she
has a natural gift for it, and it looks like things are getting serious.
She keeps throwing hints we should team up and go cross-country.
There’s supposed to be plenty of work out on the Coast, paying
better than this burg. I can’t be boosting cartons of Luckies all my
life, and Zin, no big surprise, she wants to get into pictures.
They’re always looking for “us Ruby Keeler types,” she says. How
would I know. Too much else going on in movie theaters to be
looking at the screen. . .
ST, page 291

Ruby Keeler:

https://youtu.be/vY0lKxUClBA?si=hKP3B72LJOmw7GXp

The rest of this glorious dance sequence:

https://youtu.be/1Ok31-VZWg0?si=w5h0h6-1U18angg4

Pynchon is, deep in his heart, a song and dance man, has been for a long time, has that sly,
sneaky quality of actively seeking to entertain us, in this case with song and dance routines:

. . . We’re…
step-pin out-of-our step-ins, so long silk,
’n’ ray-yon, ’n’
lace— ’Cause
all-a-girl needs to look
hep in’s, just that smile
she’s got on, her, fa-a-a-ce!
                                        So don’t
bo-ther frisk-in-for weap-ons,
You won’t even find lonja-ra-y-y…
Cause we’re steppin’ out of our
step-ins, and skip-
steppin the night a-way! . .

. . . delightfully Pre-Code stuff, like the scene in 42nd street where the chorus girls have to raise
their skirts to show off their legs:

https://youtu.be/cemjipczGE0?si=Qzw3nrm9suNkXzim

And it made me think of all the times the scene shifts within a Pynchon book to
a song ‘n’ dance routine:

PAVLOVIA (BEGUINE)

It was spring in Pavlovia-a-a,

I was lost, in a maze . . .
Lysol breezes perfumed the air,
I’d been searching for days.
I found you, in a cul-de-sac,
As bewildered as I—
We touched noses, and suddenly
My heart learned how to fly!

So, together, we found our way,
Shared a pellet, or two . . .
Like an evening in some café,
Wanting nothing, but you . . .
Autumn’s come, to Pavlovia-a-a,
Once again, I’m alone—
Finding sorrow by millivolts,
Back to neurons and bone.
And I think of our moments then,
Never knowing your name—
Nothing’s left in Pavlovia,
But the maze, and the game. . . .

They dance in flowing skeins. The rats and mice form circles,
curl their tails in and out to make chrysanthemum and sunburst
patterns, eventually all form into the shape of a single giant
mouse, at whose eye Silvernail poses with a smile, arms up in a
V, sustaining the last note of the song, along with the giant
rodent-chorus and orchestra. . .
GR pgs. 229, 230

A scene clearly inspired by Busby Berkeley musicals of the Pre-Code Era, like
“By a Waterfall” from 1933’s “Footlight Parade”:

https://youtu.be/FRqcZcrgPaU?si=vO4pfKcEC-pZmESj

Pynchon always has held dogs in high regard in his books, higher than people, usually.
Reminds me of the Houyhnhnms in Gulliver’s Travels, but in this case, the dog’s only
wish is to please:

. . . do not come to the Learnèd English Dog if it’s religious
Comfort you’re after. I may be præternatural, but I am not
supernatural. ’Tis the Age of Reason, rrrf? There is ever an
Explanation at hand, and no such thing as a Talking Dog,—
Talking Dogs belong with Dragons and Unicorns. What there are,
however, are Provisions for Survival in a World less fantastick.

                                                “Viz.— Once, the only reason Men kept
Dogs was for food. Noting that among Men no crime was quite so
abhorr’d as eating the flesh of another human, Dog quickly learn’d
to act as human as possible,— and to pass this Ability on from
Parents to Pups. So we know how to evoke from you, Man, one day
at a time, at least enough Mercy for one day more of Life. Nonetheless,
however accomplish’d, our Lives are never settled,— we go on as
tail-wagging Scheherazades, ever a step away from the dread Palm
Leaf, nightly delaying the Blades of our Masters by telling back to
them tales of their humanity. I am but an extreme Expression of
this Process,— ”
Mason & Dixon pg. 19

One might say the same of the author. At least that “extreme Expression” part.

A few nights ago watched all of “The Thin Man” with Gail. Oscar-worthy performance by Asta,
as we both agreed:

https://youtu.be/jwiLTcwHaUA?si=plr_nT5ppfbVZneE

I suppose Pynchon’s higher purpose is much the same as the Learned English Dog in his
need to please, to be entertaining. It’s not all doom and gloom you know, every now and
then there’s an outburst of irrational exuberance:

. . . The room by now lit up in some unearthly color process,
timed in a faraway film lab so as to present an outward and
visible sign of some strange underacknowledged link between
Hungary and tropical Brazil, energetic dancers in vivid flashes
of parrot colors and fanciful hats gliding elaborately by, camera
angles growing dutched and dizzy, as it all goes sweeping down
a long depth of focus away toward, and perhaps at last funneling
into, an elaborate ladies’ lounge or toilet, and who knows what
further vistas of streamlined modernity…
ST pg. 190

In closing, Nobel Prize award winner Bob Dylan as “Song and Dance Man”:

https://youtu.be/41ZyPLwA0S8?si=R3rzpvgVhbQtQ3Gh