V.V. (8) Geronimo!

[jbor]

    "Geronimo is a tourist," Angel said. "He wants to go down to San Juan
    and live in the Caribe Hilton ... "  (139.26)

Apart from the literal explanation for Angel's remark (i.e. they are in
"Little Italy") there is a deliberate sub-text at play here I think. The
displacement of Native Americans from their land by the "white" colonists is
a constant theme throughout Pynchon's fiction. Benny, innocent, has just
observed to Geronimo that it "isn't like it was a foreign country", but he
does not really understand that for both Angel and Geronimo here in the very
metropolitan hub of these "United States" indeed it *is* "like it was a
foreign country." The "other", the "non-white" -- here represented by the
Puerto Rican, Angel, and the Native American, Geronimo -- are marginalised,
exploited, underpaid, overtaxed, discriminated against. Angel's quip is
gently ironic, and without rancour (for Benny is as much an outsider as they
are, he realises, and a loyal friend). But what he draws Profane's (and I
doubt that Benny even really takes the hint), but more importantly *our*,
attention to is that Geronimo, the Native American, has indeed become a
"tourist" in his own land. It is remarkable how one word, amidst what is
seemingly throwaway drunken banter and with the dialogue and behaviours all
around it ringing so true and natural, can augur so powerful a
socio-cultural commentary.

* * *

>From: Terrance <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>

> Is Benny getting paid? On all the calendars?

That paragraph at the top of p. 139 talking about "your check" and how much
withholding tax is being taken out by the "U.S. Government" would seem to
indicate he has been getting paid. The days and hours of work are shrinking,
however, so I'd imagine they are being paid progressively less and less. The
image used to describe Benny's "weird calendar" -- a "mosaic of tilted
street surfaces that changed position according to sunlight, streetlight,
moonlight, nightlight. . . . " -- is quite exquisite. It conveys to me how
Profane's actual metabolism and the social conditioning he has acquired
about time and routine and the "work ethic" have all been shattered
completely since he has fallen in with this sub-culture and taken on their
raison d'être (and, their "calendar", or non-calendar). Indeed the
deregulation or random dismemberment of hours, days, weeks etc which Angel &
co. insist upon seems almost like a deliberate gesture of social
non-conformity or passive defiance, a type of anarchy in fact.

But I'd certainly be interested to hear what you have in mind apropos "all
the calendars".

best