VLVL2 (9.5): "They Spell Mother"

[Dave Monroe]

   "'Take that up with your father and Sasha.  Only
reason I'm tellin' you's if you put those facts
together--'
   "'They spell Mother?'
   "'Prairie, she was working for Brock.'
   "But the kid took no more than a beat and a half
before, 'Yeah, carried a badge, a commission card?'
   "'She was an independent contractor.  They all
were, are....  That way, if she ever got burned, the
Man could deny knowledge.'" (VL, Ch. 9, p. 189)


"They spell Mother"

"M" is for the million things she gave me
"O" means only that she's growing old
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me
"H" is for her heart of purest gold
"E" is for her eyes with love-light shining
"R" means right and right she'll always be
Put them all together they spell MOTHER,

a word that means the world to me

http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/m/motherhowardjohnsontheodoremorse.html


"carried a badge, a commission card"

Cf. ...

"'Can I have a uniform, a badge, a piece?'" (VL, Ch.
3, p. 30) 


"an independent contractor"

Cf. ...

"'Special Employee scale, maybe even a bonus.'" (VL,
Ch. 3, p. 30)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0308&msg=84631&sort=date

And see as well ...

RANDAL: Well, the thing is, the first Death Star was
manned by the Imperial army-storm troopers,
dignitaries--the only people onboard were Imperials.

DANTE: Basically.

RANDAL: So when they blew it up, no prob. Evil is
punished.

DANTE: And the second time around...?

RANDAL: The second time around, it wasn't even
finished yet. They were still under construction.

DANTE: So?

RANDAL: A construction job of that magnitude would
require a helluva lot more manpower than the Imperial
army had to offer. I'll bet there were independent
contractors working on that thing: plumbers, aluminum
siders, roofers.

[...]

DANTE: All right, so even if independent contractors
are working on the Death Star, why are you uneasy with
its destruction?

RANDAL: All those innocent contractors hired to do a
job were killed--csualties of a war they had nothing
to do with.

[...]

BLUE-COLLAR MAN: Well, I'm a contractor myself. I'm a
roofer ... (digs into pocket and produces business
card) Dunn and Reddy Home Improvements.ddy Home
Improvements. And speaking as a roofer, I can say that
a roofer's personal politics come heavily into play
when choosing jobs.

[...]

BLUE-COLLAR MAN: ... You know, any contractor willing
to work on that Death Star knew the risks. If they
were killed, it was their own fault. A roofer listens
to this ... (taps his heart) not his wallet.

http://www.xent.com/pipermail/fork/2002-May/011865.html


"the Man could deny knowledge"

Main Entry: de·ni·abil·i·ty 
Pronunciation: dE-"nI-&-'bi-l&-tE
Function: noun
Date: 1973
: the ability to deny something especially on the
basis of being officially uninformed 

Main Entry: plau·si·ble 
Pronunciation: 'plo-z&-b&l
Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin plausibilis worthy of applause, from
plausus, past participle of plaudere
Date: 1565
1 : superficially fair, reasonable, or valuable but
often specious <a plausible pretext>
2 : superficially pleasing or persuasive <a
swindler..., then a quack, then a smooth, plausible
gentleman -- R. W. Emerson>
3 : appearing worthy of belief <the argument was both
powerful and plausible>

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

Walton, Douglas.  "Plausible Deniability and
   Evasion of Burden of Proof"  Argumentation,
   Vol. 10 (1996): 47-58.

http://io.uwinnipeg.ca/~walton/96deniability.pdf

"He could always plead ignorance.  I didn't have that
luxury" --Richard M. Nixon on Ronald W. Reagan and the
Iran/Contra scandal (apocryphal) ...

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