MDMD: The Crime of Anonymity

[Otto]

>
> "Ludgate, then? whichever, 'twas Goal. It took me till I was lying among
the
> Rats and Vermin, upon the freezing edge of a future invisable, to
understand
> that my name had never been my own, -- rather belonging all this time, to
> the Authorities, who forbade me to change it, or withhold it..."
>

Judy:
> If there was any doubt that one was reading Pynchon, it was dispelled
here.
> This to me wsa the most compelling segment of chapter one. Any thoughts on
> why the Revd' crime should be so agregious? That this crime - to this
day -
> shames his brother enough to pay him to stay away from Britain?
>
> And on another note...the Revd's knowledge that his name is not his own
(his
> name, that is, rather than a body part) drives him to insanity. Insanity
> "cured" by a cruise.
>
> This passage brought to mind the Soviet asylums, but perhaps that's too
much
> of a strech.
>
> Comments?

Indeed, this is from the same year "Mason & Dixon" was out:

"The other day in the street I heard a city policeman in a police car,
requesting over his loudspeaker that a civilian car blocking his way move
aside and let him past, all the while addressing the driver of the car
*personally, by name* (italics by P.). I was amazed at this, though people I
tried to share it with only shrugged, assuming that of course the driver's
name (along with height, weight and date of birth) had been obtained from
the Motor Vehicle Department via satellite, as soon as the offending car's
license number had been tapped into the terminal--so what.
(TP - Introduction to Jim Dodge's "Stone Junction," p. xi-xii, 1997)

So what? It's not the height & weight but committed crimes etc. (DUI for
example, or "politically subversive writer") instead that your friendly cop
gets to know about you when he checks the number of your car. The best
result you can get here as a decent citizen is, of course, "zero entries" or
"negative."

Some cabdrivers check the police frequencies occasionally and from attending
some "seances" I can tell that it's kind of fun so if you get the
opportunity to . . . but I think it's mostly illegal and destroys your faith
in mankind.

(omitted)

Otto