Sunday, January 10, 2021

Chapter 1: Section 2: Page 13: Line 45 (150)

 "Well, they're running just lickety-split," Miles continued, "a-and say, one of them hasn't even got any clothes on, that's sure what it looks like all right!"

* * * * * * * * * *

Remember how we determined Miles Blundell is the lowbrow and vulgar part of Pynchon's imagination? Leave it up to him to notice the naked person!

Pynchon loves to use the stuttered expression of "and" a-and I have no idea why. Does it mean something or is he just trying to convey realistic speech patterns where lines don't always come out of people's mouths cleanly? I bet it's a secret message and there's an explicit reason for every time he uses it! I just don't know what that secret might be because nobody ever tells me their secrets or lets me join their shadow societies.

I bet Miles, being the vulgar aspect of Pynchon (and quite a plump aspect it is for reasons you'd understand if you read Gravity's Rainbow), uses the term "lickety-split" because it sounds so dirty. Obviously it isn't dirty in 1893 because in 1893, people didn't know you could put your tongue inside of a vagina. I mean, I'm sure lesbians did! But who were they going to tell the wonders of cunnilingus to other than other lesbians without getting tarred and feathered? Also, people in the Middle East and India knew this was a thing. And also some lovers of erotic material who were members of the Kama Shastra Society and were able to get their eyes on Richard Francis Burton's translation of The Kama Sutra. Other than that, nobody knew you could lick that split at all. NOBODY!

No comments:

Post a Comment