VLVL2 (Chapter 6) - part 9

[Mike Weaver]

82.9 "You want to see a hot set?....see that? Shook all over? That's scab 
carpentry..."   Presumably the paint on the scab construction hadn't dried 
yet either. This is great, authentic-sounding slang. (BoW)
Also another reminder that the blacklist stories as told  ignore most of 
the film crew, the hidden contributers.
Burhan asked what was a gaffer to which Phil Hostak replied 'The Gaffer is 
the chief electrician, or to put it another way, the chief lighting 
technician, responsible for delivering juice to the lighting instruments as 
well as getting the lighting right.  Depending on how active/competent the 
cinematographer is at lighting, the gaffer is often times largely 
responsible for both the aesthetics as well as the practical side of the 
lighting of a scene.'

83.12 ChiPs - California Highway Patrol ran from 1977-83

83.19 Sasha's thought's on her own uniform fetish are another great 
Pynchonian dialectic. Those of us who consciously resist authority in some 
ways are resisting the seduction of uniformity, we are still children 
attempting to escape parental control, i.e. to take responsibility for our 
own lives.
The question I have is whether this paragraph shows P's pessimism ("were 
really acts of denying") or a deliberate provocation to the reader. I 
favour the latter, especially given Frenesi's reaction. Finding the view 
politically incorrect, getting angry - when added to her own almost total 
succumbing to the fetish, throws a light on the paucity of the concept of 
political correctness, which treats political strivings as if they can be 
tidily framed, and drained of any dialectical tension. Sasha's fear is the 
healthy self doubt which reminds us that the We/They tension is as much an 
internal struggle as it is social one. It is not as the likes of Dave 
Morris would have it, that We are They, we all contain both in different 
proportions and those aspects influence how we act. Whether we choose in 
any given decision to swing with the we or they decides which side we are on.


The rest of the chapter is, IMO, pretty straightforward, as Frenesi and 
Flash realise that they and others have been deleted from the database, 
independent contractors they call themselves, but now, denied the contract 
and therefore the funds that have allowed them to stay underground, they 
will realise the hollowness of the term ' independent'.

Okay, there you go make of it what you will, me I've got to get back to 
planting garlic, digging spuds and similar earthbound activities. I'll do 
some more book and web work later in the week.
Ok yea please don't copy your comments sent to the list to me. Stereo's for 
listening...

Ciaofernow
Mike