"—I could go age fifteen, I guess," Merle went on, twinkling directly at Lindsay Noseworth strangling with indignation, "but you'd have to pay in gold, and come fetch her on your own ticket. . . . But say now would you mind if I got a snap of you all in front of this Trouvé-screw unit over here?"
* * * * * * * * * *
Oh boy! Don't I have egg all over my face! I lambasted Lindsay Noseworth for not understanding Merle's joke about getting his daughter smashed on corn liquor and here I've been bamboozled into thinking Merle was serious about selling his daughter into sex slavery! Of course he's just being crude and crass and inappropriate for the chuckles! And also to make Lindsay's head explode, something Chick Counterfly would readily assist in. Boy do I feel like an ass! Mostly because Pynchon turned me into Lindsay Noseworth! My, my, that Pynchon is a clever guy!
But still . . . Pynchon presents the idea here because it's a thing which part of society was okay with and part of society was fighting against to make the world better for as many people as possible. Lindsay, being a lover of rules, at least seems to be a lover of rules for the betterment of society, even if he sometimes interprets "the betterment of society" in fairly shallow ways (like being against profanity). The only reason Lindsay can bristle and get angry at these comments is if this kind of attitude is fairly common among the masses. If people didn't treat their young daughters like chattel, Lindsay would quite obviously understand this as a joke. The "joke" here is less "ha ha, I'm treating my five year old girl in a wholly inappropriate and disgusting way" and more "ha ha look at that uptight jackass squirm while we say despicable things about my daughter!" Maybe some people can't appreciate the difference between those two intents. But I can!
"Trouvé-screw"
"Trouvé" is French for "found." So I don't know what this unit is supposed to look like. I guess like one of those drill units. It probably just looked like Leonardo's original design.
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