VV(11): The Sewer Job

[Dave Monroe]

"What little money he'd saved from the sewer job"  (V., Ch. 8, Sec. i,
p. 213)

Well, again, that settles that, "volunteer" (p. 43) or no, those valiant
men of the ALLIAGTOR PATROL were paid for their efforts.  At any rate,
Benny Profane certainly was.  Which still raises the question, since
when are "volunteers" paid?  Er, since they're not conscripted?  In
which case, they'd still be paid, but they'd be even more
(quasi-)military as well, beyond mere organization and armbands, which
makes me wonder, a la, as Terrance reminded us, Mikhail Bakhtin's
Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics (q.v.), just what "current and topical
issues" Pynchon's little Menippean satire might be concerned with in
this regard, in 1963.  Hm ...