Watts article

[Malignd]

Rob:

<<The kid's speech which Pynchon is recording is
greeted with general approbation. Pynchon attributes
the sentiment to the broader group (... on the street
corner ... in the domino parlour ... ), and in writing
up his report he has positioned the reader as a
potential future visitor -- one who might, if they
make the effort to go into Watts ( ... or Harlem ...
or Newark ... ), meet up with this group, or one just
like it.>>

First of all, there's nothing that attributes the
words in quotes to the "kid" who is quoted four
paragraphs above.  That "kid" becomes "a lot of kids"
in the paragraph following and "these kids" and "A
Watts kid" in the paragraph following that one, and
then "you" in the paragraph after that.  Then comes
the quote, attributed to "they."  All of which forces
you to construct the jacklegged scenario you describe
to try to make sense of it all.  But it fails; you
can't connect the quote to any "kid."

That you believe Pynchon's saying that one would hear
the same in Harlem or Newark is doubly problematic in
that (a) Pynchon might not be implying as much
(although he might be); and (b) he has no basis for
such implication if that is his intent.  In either
case the problem, whether his or yours, is the result
of muddle and generalization.





		
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