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Post by reluedders on Jun 9, 2024 0:12:08 GMT
From what I've read in the first 1/2 of the novel, Lovett & Guinevere's relationship is very strange to me. I made note of a couple times where it seems like 2 middle school or high schoolers trying to flirt with each other, but not wanting to let the other one know they like each other. **I might just be spending too much time at my job!**.
For instance, when Lovett is trying to pay her to clean the bathroom, the banter back & forth is very immature. Then, when he's in her apartment, and she all of a sudden asks him, in the middle of their conversation, to go get her a soda and pay for it himself. It was not a conversation that I would picture adults having. I understand that he doesn't remember his past, but it seems from the rest of the novel that he knows how to conduct himself.
Looking back on the quotes I noted, it does seem more like Guinevere's the more childish one, but still. Anyone else notice or think about this?
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Post by Dr. Nemmers on Jun 9, 2024 3:42:07 GMT
You're perceptive to pick up on this, Renee. I think I've read a little farther than you, and it gets even more sophomoric when Guinevere's daughter enters the equation! There are some very questionable and perhaps disturbing scenes with the three of them together-- we'll probably have an entire thread on this, I'd imagine. But overall it's hard to tell what Mailer is doing with Mikey and Guinevere here. Is he offering a sincere will-they-or-won't-they plot thread? Is he offering a parody of the sort of seductive femme fatale? Is Mailer just trying to catch a popular audience with a sort of pulp/ potboiler angle? Check out the paperback cover of the novel... literariness.org/2019/02/18/analysis-of-norman-mailers-novels/#jp-carousel-22612 This one is even more alluring... www.flickr.com/photos/42080330@N03/5797732412
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Post by reluedders on Jun 10, 2024 14:50:34 GMT
I do remember the parts with Monina, and I thoughts those interactions were even more strange. There were times when I questioned how Lovett felt about Molina, almost like he was being a bit inappropriate in thinking how beautiful she was. Plus, with the way that Guinevere treats Monica, not really even like her own child, but instead like some kid on the street.
Those covers are definitely interesting! I wouldn't have thought they had a lot to do with the story at all, but then again, sex sells!
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