SLSL "TSR" Buddhist or Bud Man- the banality of plot

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It is not just the pine trees that are ugly and the cries of 
the frogs which are stupid. Lardass Levine's entire existence 
within the story is pretty stupid, as well. Are there any hints 
of something more than yer average Bud man here?

If this is the story of the developement of character, it 
seems to hinge on Levine's spur-of-the-moment decision 
to break ranks and join in the harvest of stiffs, floating 
Chagall-like on the roofs of houses, amongst the fences 
and trees.

Equally as significant, it would seem, is the vague pact
or covenant between Levine and Rizzo which allows Levine
the freedom to expose himself to the mindless carnage
of the storm while avoid being caught AWOL. But while
Rizzo is able to figure out where Levine went, neither he
nor Levine, nor the reader for that matter, are really
given anything more than:

    ...letting it all happen, now(sic) exactly unwilling
    to think about it nor quite unable; but realizing
    somehow that the situation did not require
    thought or rationalization. He was picking up
    stiffs. That was what he was doing. (p.48)

His intial squeemishness has been replaced by an almost
Buddhist-like emergence into pure being, beyond (or before)
thought. Has he learned to keep his emotions under control,
or, has he become cold and unfeeling?

Although his interaction with Little Buttercup seems to 
evince signs that she might be a racist, this only causes
Levine to "test" her accent to see if it matches Dugan's,
which apparently, to his ear, it does. But that does not
cause Levine to end the date. Nor does he challenge her
views in any way. On the contrary, he plays along and 
encourages the eventual outcome. It's as if he had never
gone on the mortuary detail.

Furthermore, he allows himself to detect dismay in the
eyes of Little Buttercup that he might be more than
just a good fuck: 

    ...that what was hazarding this particular
    plowboy was deeper than any problem of 
    seasonal change or doubtful fertility.(p.50)

He apparently had already determined- like an
anthropologist judging a member of some "primitive"
culture, by her string of enumerated material wares-
that her "giving capacity" was sufficiently impoverished
to allow him to treat her as an object of his lust
without more than nonchalant compassion. Finally, they 
seem strangely equal in their banality. Or am I missing
something?

respectfully