Hike schmike.

[Doug Millison]

The brave Chris the K said, "If Slothrop is alone in middle of the 
forest with a pine tree, what does it say?  You *can* do something. 
Take the oil filter."

That's hardly the only choice!   Like some P-list revolutionaries, 
you could deconstruct the tree's advice and show how it really means 
to invest in lumber company shares and lock up all those misguided 
monkey-wrenchers. The oil's liquidity suggests the investment 
strategy, while its ooziness suggests the way that the socially 
constructed narrator undercuts the text's literality.  "Filter" 
suggests the separation of those who would be so foolish as to 
unironically commit themselves to an act of violence against the 
technological artifice that Pynchon celebrates. ;-)
-- 

d  o  u  g    m  i  l  l  i  s  o  n  <http://www.online-journalist.com>