The Fiction Uncut

Notes:
1. Sometimes you would need to wade through long conversations to come to the crux, but then it is the conversations that make Pulp Fiction the hilarious movie that it is - so I am sure you, the discerning reader, wouldn’t mind reading them; in fact, would immensely enjoy reading them.
2. The conversations from the movie are italicized and the parts that are important for the point I am trying to make are in Bold.

    My passion for Pulp Fiction is almost paralleled to my fanatic devotion for Wodehouse. A person who is obsessed to one thing is called a monomaniac - if there is a word to describe a bloke with a mania for two things, then that could easily be the word to describe me. I strongly suspect that my friends switch themselves off once I get started on these two hobby horses of mine. I have learnt Jules's Ezekiel 25:17 by heart, have the special collector’s edition DVD on my shelf, have watched the movie I-don’t-know-how-may-number-of-times, can rattle off lines before the characters do, recommend the movie to almost every soul I come across and so on and so forth. In fact I would be ready to give an arm and leg for getting an opportunity to discuss the movie and my observations with QT. Err… on second thoughts, I wouldn’t.

After the most recent viewing of Pulp Fiction, I came up with what I would like to call another interesting observation. So I thought before I loose track, I ought to pen all of them down. Here goes.

Pulp Fiction is about keeping secrets

We experience a taste of it for the first time when Mia tells Vincent about Tony Rocky Horror and Marsellus at the Jack Rabbit Slims.
MIA: The truth is, nobody knows why Marsellus tossed Tony Rocky Horror out of that window except Marsellus and Tony Rocky Horror.

As the movie progresses, we see that at least two other pairs of characters have secrets to keep. First, Mia and Vincent reach a pact that they are not going to talk about the Mia-overdosing-and-coming-back-to-life episode with anyone.

The conversation: 

VINCENT: What are your thoughts on how to handle this?
MIA: What's yours?
VINCENT: Well I'm of the opinion that Marsellus can live his whole live and never ever hear of this incident.
Mia smiles.
MIA: Don't worry about it. If Marsellus ever heard of this, I'd be in as much trouble as you.
VINCENT: I seriously doubt that.
MIA: If you can keep a secret, so can I.
VINCENT: Let's shake on it.
The two walk toward each other, holding out their hands to shake and shake they do.

Second, Marsellus has, for his own good a dark tragic secret, which if let out would spoil his standing a good deal among his minions, to keep. After the incident at the pawnshop where Marsellus is sodomized he, in what turns out to be unintentionally hilarious, almost pleads with Butch to keep the secret between just the two.

The conversation:
BUTCH: So we're cool?
MARSELLUS: Yeah man, we're cool. One thing I ask -- two things I ask: don't tell nobody about this. This shit's between me and you and the soon-to-be-livin'-the-rest-of-his-short-ass-life-in-agonizing-pain, Mr. Rapist here. It ain't nobody else's business. Two: leave town. Tonight. Right now. And when you're gone, stay gone. You've lost your Los Angeles privileges. Deal?
BUTCH: Deal.
The two men shake hands, then hug one another.

So, you see that the discussion at Jack Rabbit Slims is just a build up for what would follow consistently during the course of the movie.

MARSELLUS to BUTCH: In the fifth, your ass goes down.

Marsellus pays off Butch to loose a fight and figuratively says "In the fifth, your ass goes down". What follows as the story proceeds is, Marsellus's ass literally goes down when he is sodomized by two homosexuals at the pawnshop. There is a connection, isn’t there one!!

Is Jules clairvoyant?

Now this is what I call "secret's crown of secret".

At the restaurant:

JULES to YOLANDA: Yolanda, I thought you were gonnabe cool. When you yell at me, it makes me nervous. When I get nervous, I get scared. And when motherfuckers get scared, that's when motherfuckers get accidentally shot.

If one watchs the movie carefully, say a couple of times or more, one would recognize that this is the exact reason why Vincent dies. Or is it just my genius? I dont know.

The scene goes thus:

He(Butch) walks through the apartment and back into the kitchen. He opens a cupboard and takes out a box of Pop Tarts. Putting down the milk, he opens the box, takes out two Pop Tarts and puts them in the toaster.
Butch glances to his right, his eyes fall on something.
What he sees is a small compact Czech M61 submachine gun with a huge silencer on it, lying on his kitchen counter.
BUTCH: (softly) Holy shit.
He picks up the intimidating peace of weaponary and examines it.
Then...a toilet FLUSHES.
Butch looks up to the bathroom door, which is parallel to the kitchen. There is someone behind it.
Like a rabbit caught in a radish patch, Butch freezes, not knowing what to do.
The bathroom door opens and Vincent Vega steps out of the bathroom, tightening his belt. In his hand is the book "MODESTY BLAISE" by Peter O'Donnell.
Vincent and Butch lock eyes.
Vincent freezes.
Butch doesn't move, except to point the M61 in Vincent's direction.
Neither man opens his mouth.
Then...the toaster LOUDLY kicks up the Pop Tarts.
That's all the situation needed.
Butch's finger HITS the trigger.
MUFFLED FIRE SHOOTS out of the end of the gun.
Vincent is seemingly WRACKED with twenty bullets SIMULTANEOUSLY -- LIFTING him off his feet, PROPELLING him through the air and CRASHING through the glass shower door at the end of the bathroom.
By the time Butch removes his finger from the trigger, Vincent is annihilated.
Butch stands frozen, amazed at what just happened.

What we definitely see is that because of the sudden popping out of the Pop Tarts amidst the deathly silence, Butch gets scared and the gun fires off getting Vincent Vega accidentally shot. Jules's words ring true.

Mia of Pulp Fiction and The Bride in Kill Bill

Uma Thurman plays both Mia and The Bride.

BRIDE(KILL BILL): I'm the deadliest woman in the world - but right now, I'm just scared shitless about my baby!

MIA(PULP FICTION): The character I played, Raven McCoy, her background was she was raised by circus performers. So she grew up doing a knife act. According to the show, she was the deadliest woman in the world with a knife.

See, in both the movies she has something to do with being the deadliest woman in the world.

The Vega Brothers vs Harvey Keitel

It is universally known that Vincent Vega of Pulp Fiction and Vic Vega(Mr. Blonde) of Reservoir Dogs are brothers. Harvey Keitel plays Winston Wolfe in The Fiction and Mr. White in Reservoir Dogs. The Vega Brothers, I say, have a knack of getting into trouble with/pissing off Harvey Keitel. Just check out the conversations below and you will know what I mean. And the Keitel characters react almost similarly in both the instances. Smiles.

Reservoir Dogs:
MR. BLONDE: You gonna bark all day, little doggie, or are you gonna bite?
MR. WHITE: What was that? I'm sorry, I didn't catch it. Would you repeat it?
MR. BLONDE: (slowly)I said: "Are you gonna bark allday, dog, or are you gonna bite."
MR. PINK: Both of you two assholes knock it the fuck off and calm down!
MR. WHITE(to Mr. Blonde): So you wanna git bit, huh?

Pulp Fiction:

THE WOLF: Good. What I need you two fellas to do is take those cleaning products and clean the inside of the car. And I'm talkin' fast, fast, fast. You need to go in the backseat, scoop up all those little pieces of brain and skull. Get it out of there. Wipe down the upholstery...
The Wolf and Jimmie turn, heading for the bedroom, leaving Vincent and Jules standing in the kitchen.
VINCENT: (calling after him) A "please" would be nice.
The Wolf stops and turns around.
THE WOLF: Come again?
VINCENT: I said a "please" would be nice.
The Wolf takes a step toward him.
THE WOLF: Set is straight, Buster. I'm not here to say "please." I'm here to tell you want to do. And if self-preservation is an instinct you possess, you better fuckin' do it and do it quick. I'm here to help. If my help's not appreciated, lotsa luck gentlemen.

Do you see it!!

Vincent Vega

Vincent Vega turns out to be a shrewd chap who somehow has the uncanny knack of courting trouble and each time he lands in a sticky situation, he tries to palm it off to someone else. Here are the couple of instances that act as evidence to this observation.

1. Vincent is the guy who accidentally shoots that kid Marvin sitting in the backseat of the car and he conveniently palms it off to Jules, cleaning the backseat at Jimmy's place. See what Jules has to say about it:

Jules: In fact, what the fuck am I doin' in the back? You're the motherfucker should be on brain detail. We're tradin'. I'm washin' windows and you're pickin' up this nigger's skull.

2. Mia is O.D.ing at Lance's house and Lance prepares the adrinaline shot. The automatic thing that our cunning Vincent does is to encourage Lance to give her the shot. Here's how the conversation goes:

VINCENT: You're gonna give her the shot.
LANCE: No, you're gonna give her the shot.
VINCENT: I've never does this before.
LANCE: I've never does this before either, and I ain't starting now. You brought 'er here, that means you give her the shot. The day I bring an O.D.ing bitch to your place, then I gotta give her the shot.

Ofcourse, as you see, in both the cases Jules and Lance refuse to be Vincent's fools.

Here's another case in point. When Lance refuses to allow the overdosed Mia into his house, here's how Vincent threatens him.

LANCE: Are you deaf? You're not bringin' that fucked up bitch in my house!
VINCENT: This fucked up bitch is Marsellus Wallace's wife. Now if she fuckin' croaks on me, I'm a grease spot. But before he turns me into a bar soap, I'm gonna be forced to tell 'im about how you coulda saved her life, but instead you let her die on your front lawn.

See how he is again preparing himself to implicate Lance in case of a future eventuality.

Interesting character, what?

Here ends my labour of love. Thank you for your patient reading. What do you think? Tell me.

Comments

[Deepali]

OK, so I finally watched Pulp Fiction. And came back here to read your article. Of course, it made a lot more sense now :-). I liked the Vincent-Mia episode and found the Winston episode hilarious. And my point of discussion would be: Butch has just returned after having struck a deal with Marsellius. He has had a real lousy day (shooting Vincent, watching his Boss getting screwed and then saving his ass are just some of the highlights). Yet after he is back to his wife/girlfriend, he has to ask her what she had for breakfast!! That's because he can only relate to her on those NORMAL levels. What do you think of this point?

[Arvind]

Deepali!! that was an interesting observation there, about Butch and Fabianne. I liked Jules the best. It was just too cool and cold blooded.

Arvind