Friday, March 5, 2021

Chapter 1: Section 4: Page 30: Line 89 (461)

 They went off to a steak house nearby for lunch.

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I think the word "nearby" is being stretched beyond its limits. They're in the field of balloons somewhere outside Chicago. How "nearby" can a steak house be? Maybe, because of The Stockyards, steak houses have proliferated to the point of nuisance. Maybe by "steak house," Pynchon means a house made out of the extra beefsteaks the Bindlestiffs of the Blue brought along to calm other aeronauts' guard dogs after which they could raid the camps abandoned by young men rushing off to see naked women at the Fair?

Where is Pugnax during all of this?

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