VLVL2(3): You, Hector

[Dave Monroe]

   "'Beg pardon?'
   "'One OD'd on the line at Tommy's waitin for a
burger, one got into some words in a parkin lot with
the wrong gentleman, one took a tumble in a faraway
land, so on, more 'n half of 'em currently on the run,
and you so far around the bend you don't even see it,
that's what's become of your happy household, you'd've
done better up against the SWAT team.  Just in the
privacy of your thotz, Zoyd.  As a exercise, li'l
kinda Zen meditation.  'Who was saved?'
   "'You, Hector.'
   "'Ay se va, go on, braek your old compinche's
heart.  Here I thought you knew everything, it turns
out you don't know shit.'  Grinning--a stretched and
terrible face.  It was the closest Hector got to
feeling sorry for himself, this suggestion he liked to
put out that among the fallen, he had fallen further
than most, not in distance alone but also in the
quality of descent having begun long ago concentrated
and graceful as a sky diver but--the tostada procedure
was minor evidence--he growing less professional the
longer he fell, while his skills as a field man
depreciated."  (VL, Ch. 3, p. 29)


"Beg pardon?"

And one of the malefactors that were hanged railed on
him, saying, Art not thou the Christ? save thyself and
us. But the other answered, and rebuking him said,
Dost thou not even fear God, seeing thou art in the
same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we
receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath
done nothing amiss. And he said, Jesus, remember me
when thou comest in thy kingdom. And he said unto him,
Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me
in Paradise.

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/luke-asv.html


"One OD'd on the line"

Cf. ...

This little piggy went to market 
This little piggy stayed home  
This little piggy had roast beef  
This little piggy had none  
This little piggy cried "Wee! Wee! Wee!"” all the way
home ...

http://www.bartleby.com/59/6/thislittlepi.html

Are the instances Hector enumerates events that emerge
as having happened along the way?  Let me know ...


"household"

Main Entry: econ·o·my 
Pronunciation: i-'kä-n&-mE, &-, E-
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -mies
Etymology: Middle French yconomie, from Medieval Latin
oeconomia, from Greek oikonomia, from oikonomos
household manager, from oikos house + nemein to manage
-- more at VICINITY, NIMBLE
Date: 15th century
1 archaic : the management of household or private
affairs and especially expenses
2 a : thrifty and efficient use of material resources
: frugality in expenditures; also : an instance or a
means of economizing : SAVING b : efficient and
concise use of nonmaterial resources (as effort,
language, or motion)
3 : the arrangement or mode of operation of something
: ORGANIZATION
4 : the structure of economic life in a country, area,
or period; specifically : an economic system 

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary


"the SWAT team"

Main Entry: SWAT
Function: abbreviation
Special Weapons and Tactics

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

http://imdb.com/Title?0072560

http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-1478/

http://imdb.com/Title?0257076

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/s.w.a.t./

http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/college/811/police/swat.mid

I was once at a party where the DJ played 13 different
recordings of the "Theme from S.W.A.T." (Barry de
Vorzon, 1975) in a row.  Frighetning thing is, I found
yet another one the very next day ...


"thotz"

Cf. Thoth?  hat's MR. Thoth to you ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0108&msg=58697&sort=date

Anyway, an apparantly standard purposeful misspelling
(try Googling it), but perhaps the most unusual
Pynchon's Hectorisms ...


"compinche"

Compinche: Buddy, accomplice

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Bay/7110/dictionary-c.htm

compinche s.m. 1 (fam.) mate. 2 accomplice (en un
delito).

delito s.m. crime, offence: delito polmtico =
political crime.

pinchar v.t. 1 to prick. 2 to puncture, to pierce
(perforar). 3 to annoy, to tease (incordiar). 4 TEC.
(fam.) to bug. 5 (fam.) to give someone) a jab. 6 no 
ni cortar, (fam.) to cut no ice, to carry no weight.

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9810&msg=32578&sort=date


"Zen meditation"

"The L.E.D. blinks, shivers, nods in a resign'd way. 
'You are hardly the first to ask.  Travelers return'd
from the Japanese Islands tell of certain 
religious Puzzles known as Koan ....'" (M&D, Ch. 3, p.
22)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=60225&sort=date


"the fallen"

Preterite
Calvinist/Puritan doctrine of the Elect (the chosen)
and the Preterite (the passed-over, the damned);
"second sheep" 3; "a new preterition abroad in
England" 15; Dodoes, 108-11; "But if [the Dutch
settlors] were chosen to come to Mauritius, why had
they also been chosen to fail, and leave? Is that a
choosing, or is it a passing over? Are they Elect, or
are they Preterite, and doomed as Dodoes?" 110; "men
you have seen on foot and smileless in the cities but
forgot" 136; at Rathenau seance, 163; coal-tars as
preterite dung, 166; "his poor sheep" 233; "the
multitudes who are passed over by God and History"
299; "In preterite line they have pointed her here"
316; "Elite and Preterite, we move through a cosmic
design of darkness and light" 495; "they dissolve now
into the swarm. . .of this dancing Preterition" 548;
"The successful loner was only the other part of it:
the last piece to the jigsaw puzzle, whose shape had
already been created by the Preterite" 554; Judas,
555; On Preterition, 555; "in their slick persistence
and our preterition" 590; "rubbers yellow with
preterite seed, Kleenex wadded to brain shapes hiding
preterite snot, preterite tears" 626; 667; 668; "the
glozing neuters of the world" 677; "the Humility,
among the gray and preterite souls" 742; See also Hand
of Providence/God; Puritans

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/alpha/p-q.html


"quality of descent"

Main Entry: trag·e·dy 
Pronunciation: 'tra-j&-dE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -dies
Etymology: Middle English tragedie, from Middle
French, from Latin tragoedia, from Greek tragOidia,
from tragos goat (akin to Greek trOgein to gnaw) +
aeidein to sing -- more at TROGLODYTE, ODE
Date: 14th century
1 a : a medieval narrative poem or tale typically
describing the downfall of a great man b : a serious
drama typically describing a conflict between the
protagonist and a superior force (as destiny) and
having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that
excites pity or terror c : the literary genre of
tragic dramas
2 a : a disastrous event : CALAMITY b : MISFORTUNE
3 : tragic quality or element

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=tragedy

Cf. ...

"A screaming comes across the sky"?  To be cont'd ...


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