MDDM pizza (and pieces of eight)

[Mutualcode at aol.com]

Rob:

 [...back to the *deus ex machina* idea: Pynchon behind it all is *double*
 double double-dealing (2 x 2 x 2 = 8) with his ("historical") narratives,
 and with his readers, at these moments. More than this, the outrageous
 improbability of the sudden presence and active intervention of both of
 these giant eight-entities in order to progress his narrative seems to
 flaunt the *literary* plot-maker's art/ifice, deliberately so, to such an
 extreme degree that you don't even really notice that you're being duped, or
 else you suddenly realise, perhaps, that you *always* are ...]

Yes. a new perspective on the notion of double-crossing and double-dealing,
with "8" as the link. In this regard we shouldn't forget the ongoing game of
"crazy-eights" with the boogered deck at the family reunion in Vineland. So
the nose is involved in this pynchonian thread, as well, perhaps the faint glow
of the gnostic double-light beginning to suffuse into the picture.

Maybe it's all just a nod to the realization that the game is rigged. But which
game? As you point out, it could be one of many (all?) levels, and we
may be the ultimate, or penultimate dupes. Without boatswain Higgs about
to unravel this tangled rigging the question remains open, and that may
be for the better, especially if one's preference is, as mine, to interpret
Pynchon as doubly aware of how duplicitous society is, and yet how
arbitrary reality can be- even down to the quantum level. Things
seem arbitrary yet contingent.

These two processes- the contingent and the arbitrary- seem somehow
complementary rather than mutually exclusive, and to participate equally
on all levels, in all "the games." Inspite of how powerful any particular
"Brock," author, reader, "sultan of the house," or scientific theory of 
everything may seem at any given time. Times change, and as Pynchon
seemed to intimate in the Luddite essay no one can predict the nature 
of the next "O-boy." That would be an optimistic interpretation, at least.