VV(11): The Sewer Job

[Terrance]

Dave Monroe wrote:
> 
> "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 ...

There are all sorts of contradictions. But if we are willing
to consider this book MS, these are not contradictions, not
postmodern subversions, not even mysteries. And once the
"applied author" is identified we know what to attribute to
P and what to attribute to other narrators. Some of the
narrators of GR are demonic. They lie, they contradict
themselves and they deliberately mislead the reader. But the
"applied author" does not. 
The calendars in this book are important. P gives us 1956
from the NY Times, but we are shifting around in space and
time and dream and film and other art mediums, paintings and
music. With Benny here in the employment office we meet
Rachel for what seems to be the first time, but we know that
Benny/Owlglass have a  history. Note that she is exactly
what he "daydreamed," she pays his fair, screws, feeds, gets
him job, is a machine girl etc.  Note that in the office a
scene that might be out of a film or TV or Grapes of Wrath
pops in out of time into his space. This is why Benny has
money from the sewer job, but he didn't get paid. 

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/v/mystery.html