V.V.(8) sfacim and sewer stories

[Dave Monroe]

But I'm intrigued by the not-quite-ganglike, not,
indeed, in that West Side Story, sense, Playboys as
well.  That the already in publication Playboy
magazine  might put put a particular spin on their
name aside (though it might explain their peculiarly
smoking jacket effect colors, "coal-black velvet ...
with clan name discreetly lettered"  [p. 138]), they
are indeed peculiar.  "A strangely exhausted group"
(all of this is on p. 138), much world-weariness in
V., in Pynchon, though right now I have of course that
of the alligators, and, intertextually, the Empty
Ones, ringing in my ears ...

But here's what I'm hearing most clearly: "unlike
other gangs, they had no turf of their own."  This is
indeed a difference, as anyobdy's whose ever seen the
very turf-conscious The Warriors, or even certain
episodes of "Happy Days" (or who lives in a settlement
large enough to support anything worthy of the name,
"gang") might notice.  Anarchistic, a la Pynchon's
other such groups, in your own valid indeed
intertextual stretch, perhaps, but diasporic, not to
mention mercenary, certainly.

"They were spread out all over the city; having no
common geographical or cultural ground, they put their
arsenal and street-fighting prowess at the disposal of
any interested party who might be considering a
rumble."  Now, of course, my inclination, in the face
of the peculiarity of the Playboys, is not only to
note their seeming paramilitary nature, but to look
for a possible historical context.  But given all the
constraints here, I'm at a loss.  Any help?

"They were everywhere, but, as Angel had mentioned,
chicken.  The main advantage in having them on your
side was psychological."  What role does all this play
"within" the text?  How might it be articulated with
the presumed "without"?  Both valid, and, I'd think,
related, lines of inquiry.  But that "chicken" ...

"Faces pale and soulless as the other side of the
night," which, apparently, is not the same as "the
day," oppositions being, indeed, context dependent. 
Question is, what's the context here?  "And you felt
that was where they lived."   

Vampires?  Les Vampires (q.v., as well as Irma Vep)? 
"All of them affecting prowling walks, hungry and
feral mouths."  Vampiric, at any rate.  Or, rather,
lycanthropic, "prowling" (and, again, see those
prwlers in LV), "hungry" (like the ...), "feral." 
"Playboy" = "wolf" (just purse your lips and ...).  
Given their nomadism, deterritorilization, the
unstriated space they occupy, one (namely, me) is
reminded as well of the "becoming-wolf" of Deleuze and
Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus, but also, via both
D&G, HH of the steppes, of the steppenwolf.  A magic
carpet ride, indeed, but to where?  Hm ...

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