Watts article "you"

[jbor]

> I think jbor has touched upon the
> similarity of the article to travel pieces--this technique (and his use of
> "you") can be found in such writing.

Not me, sorry. 

There are two distinct uses of "you" in the article. One is an appropriation
of the way the Watts locals use the pronoun in their spoken discourse (e.g.
"'The Man just going to come back in and shoot you, like last time.'") In
this usage, "you" is actually substituted for "I"/"me" or "us"; Pynchon
takes it from the direct speech of his informants and uses it in the various
scenarios he constructs (e.g "how very often the cop does approach you with
his revolver ready", "As for violence, in a pocket of reality such as Watts,
violence is never far from you: because you are a man, because you have been
put down, because for every action there is an equal and opposite
reaction.") 

The other use of "you" derives from the normal, colloquial style of
interpersonal address used in informal conversations -- e.g. "the mood in
Watts is about what you might expect", "buildings -- low, faded stucco boxes
that remind you oddly, of certain streets in Mexico". Here the "you" is the
writer and/or reader -- more formally, "one". It is used in tourism ads, but
its primary context is the normal, conversational "you":

    "But why?" asked one white lady volunteer. "There are so many
    agencies now that you can go to, that can help you, if you'll
    only file your complaint."

There's a little bit of slippage in the second usage but it's easy to work
out what's going on.

best