Chapter 1: Section 4: Page 26: Line 10 (382)

 "Makes Little Egypt look like a church lady."

* * * * * * * * * *

Little Egypt

Church Lady

Chapter 1: Section 4: Page 26: Line 9 (381)

 "And you haven't seen the turn she does down to that South Seas Pavilion yet," declared Merle Rideout gallantly.

* * * * * * * * * *

Is it really gallant to say, "And you should see her shimmy with less clothes on!"

Hmm, probably!

Chapter 1: Section 4: Page 26: Line 8 (380)

 "Nice put-together," Chick nodded admiringly.

* * * * * * * * * *

Chick is the only member of the Chums of Chance willing to compliment Miss McAdoo. Perhaps it's an uncouth attempt at flattery but does that matter? It's a compliment in an appropriate situation. It's brave, actually! He's putting himself out there! Is he being honest based on his previous description of Chevrolette's style of sleeves as balloons? Or is he just thinking, "This woman was running about naked so I need to get on her good side!"?

Chapter 1: Section 4: Page 26: Line 6-7 (378-379)

 Fully attired, she seemed to have just stepped out of a ladies' magazine, her ensemble this forenoon right at the vanguard of summer fashion, the current revival of the leg-of-mutton sleeve having resulted in a profusion of shirtwaists with translucent shoulders "big as balloons, all over town"—as Chick Counterfly, a devoted observer of the female form, would express it—in Miss McAdoo's case, saturated in a vivid magenta, and accompanied by a long ostrich-feather boa dyed the same shade. And her hat, roguishly atilt, egret plumes swooping each time she moved her head, would have charmed even the most zealous of conservationist bird-lovers.

* * * * * * * * * *

I'm keeping these two sentences together to keep the description of Miss McAdoo's clothing in one entry.

"Fully attired, she seemed to have just stepped out of a ladies' magazine"
The "fully attired" part means it's no ladies' magazine I've ever read!

I'm not much on discussing fashion so I don't have a lot to say here. I've given the description of Chevrolette to the Non-Certified Spouse so hopefully she'll draw her interpretation of it and I'll add it to this post as an update.

"vivid magenta"
I sort of stalled in my immediate re-reading of Gravity's Rainbow but I will get back to it soonish. I mention that here because "magenta and green" was a recurring color pattern in that novel which I have yet to get a handle on. I'm hoping I'll discover something during my second reading. I was surprised when I read "magenta" here and Pynchon didn't follow it up with some green article of clothing.

One strange aspect of Pynchon's writing is how he'll fill a description with intricate details concerning one or two aspects of the scene but then he'll leave out a whole lot more. So here we get some solid details on Miss McAdoo's sleeves and the feathers on her hat. But we don't get a description of the clothing attached to the sleeves or the hat attached to the feathers. By describing scenes this way, Pynchon asks the reader to focus on specific aspects of his story which must mean something, right?!

Why would we be asked to think about her sleeves only? I guess because they remind Chick of balloons and the Chums of Chance ride in a balloon? Maybe it's as if the women are observers floating about the city on balloon sleeves! And the feathers in the hat remind the reader of birds and birds fly! So Pynchon is removing all the detail from the woman's dress except that which reminds the reader of flight. Except for the ostrich boa which is a reminder of the exact opposite: a bird that can't fly. But even a suggestion of non-flight suggests flight in the way any mention of one thing automatically suggests the opposite.

"would have charmed even the most zealous of conservationist bird-lovers"
There's hyperbole and then there's just plain old ridiculousness, Pynchon! No wait! Hyperbole is the act of making a statement hyper-ridiculous. We understand how charming Miss McAdoo looks in her feathered hat purely because Pynchon expresses the unbelievable statement that avian conservationists would accept the destruction of birds because she wears this feathered hat so well.

I hope I used the adjective "avian" correctly in the previous paragraph because I meant to say a conservationist who was concerned with saving birds and not a conservationist who was themselves a bird.