Against the Blog: 3-17
So you remember, Kit and Yashmeen, pretending to be a couple, traveling to Switzerland. La la la. They visit Reimann's grave, where Yashmeen recalls how when she was a young lass in Russia, her father would take in various fugitives of some sort whom "the government feared...more than it feared Social Democrats, more than bomb-throwers" (663). I'm not sure what this is getting at--are we talking about Trespassers? Or is there some historical context that would make things clear?
So anyway, they're meant to meet up with some TWIT people in "the fabled Sanatorium Böpfli-Spazzoletta," where there is a fraternal reunion between Kit and Reef. And...er...this next part sorta may lend credence to people who would contend that Pynchon is just goofing around with this novel. So Ruperta has a lapdog, which, Reef somehow infers, has been trained "to provide intimate 'French' caresses of the tongue for the pleasure of its mistress." SO ANYWAY:
"Oboy, oboy." He stroked the diminutive spaniel for a while until, with no warning, she jumped off the couch and slowly went into the bedroom, looking back now and then over her shoulder. Reef followed, taking out his penis, breathing heavily through his mouth. "Here, Mouffie, nice big dog bone for you right here, lookit this, yeah, seen many of these lately? Come on, smells good don't it, mmm, yum!" and so forth, Mouffette meantime angling her head, edging closer, sniffing with curiosity. "That's right, now, o-o-open up...good girl, good Mouffette now let's just put this--yaahhgghh!
Reader, she bit him. (666)
So yeah, I laughed, and I get the Jane Eyre echo, but uh...well, I dunno; maybe it's just meant to be farcical, but how is one supposed to take Reef at all seriously after this? WELL NEVER MIND. MOVING ON.
It seems like Yashmeen and Kit might be sort of on the verge of actually starting something, but then he doesn't say the right thing, and they don't.
Scarsdale Vibe is in Europe, Reef tells Kit. Buying fine art. Kit immediately wants to make him dead. This is largely because he feels guilty at having accepted the patronage of the presumed agents of his father's death. Reef sort of agrees with this, but easier said than done. If only we could talk to pa! But...wait a second, here's TWIT's resident medium, Madame Natalia Eskimoff! Reef is skeptical, but they decide to try a channeling. It doesn't seem to be working, but then, using Reef as a conduit, they're able to get through to him. He sort of half-apologizes for alienating his family, but they're unable to get him to answer, with absolute certainty, whether he was killed at Scarsdale's behest.
Ruperta and Yashmeen end up getting it on, I'll note, because everyone likes salacious details.
Anyway, Kit and Yashmeen part--he's going West; she's going to Austria then Hungary to participate in some sort of psychic experiment for TWIT.
And that's about it.
So anyway, they're meant to meet up with some TWIT people in "the fabled Sanatorium Böpfli-Spazzoletta," where there is a fraternal reunion between Kit and Reef. And...er...this next part sorta may lend credence to people who would contend that Pynchon is just goofing around with this novel. So Ruperta has a lapdog, which, Reef somehow infers, has been trained "to provide intimate 'French' caresses of the tongue for the pleasure of its mistress." SO ANYWAY:
"Oboy, oboy." He stroked the diminutive spaniel for a while until, with no warning, she jumped off the couch and slowly went into the bedroom, looking back now and then over her shoulder. Reef followed, taking out his penis, breathing heavily through his mouth. "Here, Mouffie, nice big dog bone for you right here, lookit this, yeah, seen many of these lately? Come on, smells good don't it, mmm, yum!" and so forth, Mouffette meantime angling her head, edging closer, sniffing with curiosity. "That's right, now, o-o-open up...good girl, good Mouffette now let's just put this--yaahhgghh!
Reader, she bit him. (666)
So yeah, I laughed, and I get the Jane Eyre echo, but uh...well, I dunno; maybe it's just meant to be farcical, but how is one supposed to take Reef at all seriously after this? WELL NEVER MIND. MOVING ON.
It seems like Yashmeen and Kit might be sort of on the verge of actually starting something, but then he doesn't say the right thing, and they don't.
Scarsdale Vibe is in Europe, Reef tells Kit. Buying fine art. Kit immediately wants to make him dead. This is largely because he feels guilty at having accepted the patronage of the presumed agents of his father's death. Reef sort of agrees with this, but easier said than done. If only we could talk to pa! But...wait a second, here's TWIT's resident medium, Madame Natalia Eskimoff! Reef is skeptical, but they decide to try a channeling. It doesn't seem to be working, but then, using Reef as a conduit, they're able to get through to him. He sort of half-apologizes for alienating his family, but they're unable to get him to answer, with absolute certainty, whether he was killed at Scarsdale's behest.
Ruperta and Yashmeen end up getting it on, I'll note, because everyone likes salacious details.
Anyway, Kit and Yashmeen part--he's going West; she's going to Austria then Hungary to participate in some sort of psychic experiment for TWIT.
And that's about it.
Labels: Against the Blog
posted by GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. at 11:19 PM
Actually, if I may comment on my own post, it seems to me that the business with Reef and the dog isn't as arbitrary as it may initially appear. I think Pynchon is laying the groundwork for the kind of fluid sexuality that characterizes the Reef/Yashmeen/Cyprian relationship later on. For most of the book, Reef is presented as rigidly heterosexual, but this scene hints that this state of affairs may not actually be as immutable as all that.