"Oh, an anxious hour or two, perhaps," allowed Randolph, his facial expression suggesting gastric memories.
* * * * * * * * * *
Wait. They really ate too much strangled alligator for the ship to lift them? During the first half of this sentence, I was thinking, "Oh ho! Randolph is going along with the joke because the experience was too traumatic to speak of or to look at directly!" And then by the second half of the sentence, I was thinking, "Wait. How does an expression suggest gastric memories? Was he licking his lips? Is it the same expression that would suggest orgasmic memories? What did he look like?!" But I quickly abandoned that line of thinking when my brain decided there was something more important to think like, "The Professor was serious about eating too much strangled alligator? Is that too unbelievable, even for a Pynchon novel? What do I do with this information?!" But then I just decided to relax and said to myself, "Self, don't you worry. Pynchon is just using this moment to express how delectable food is in New Orleans. It's so good that five young lads could double their body weight from eating too much."
It's a good thing my brain knows how to talk me off of a ledge because I'm still in the easy to read parts of this Pynchon book. Just wait until I have to read one of Chick Counterfly's semen giving a sermon on the nature of infinity!
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