A young lady typewriter who managed to act prim and bold at the same time glanced up from her florally-appliquéd machine.
* * * * * * * * * *
"act prim and bold at the same time"
At first, I was confused because I felt like acting prim was nearly identical to acting bold. Don't you have to be bold to tut-tut every cool thing other people engage in? But then I thought, "Maybe I'm using the wrong definitions of the words!" So Pynchon probably means "bold" as in "having a strong or vivid appearance." In other words, this young lady looks both "stiffly formal and respectable" and "vividly bold or vivacious." She's putting off a bit of office and a bit of weekend fun. She probably looks a lot like Joan from Mad Men. Now there was a prim and bold lady!
"florally-appliquéd machine"
People put cute little stickers on their work supplies back in 1893 too? I mean, I'm not surprised! It's weird how we always tend to think of the members of other generations as somehow a different species entirely. Of course people in 1893 would value cute things to liven up their work environment and make it feel more like their own space! Especially somebody who was both prim and bold (but a little more bold than prim, obviously).
No comments:
Post a Comment