Watts article

[jbor]

on 1/10/04 1:12 AM, jbor wrote:

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_watts.html

    "There was a time," they'll tell you, "you'd say, 'Take off the
    badge baby, and let's settle it.' I mean, he wouldn't, but you'd
    say it. But since August, man, the way I feel, hell with the
    badge -- just take off that gun."
> 
>>> even though it's
>>> attributed
>>> as "they'll tell you", the speaker actually refers to
>>> himself as "I" ("I mean", "the way I feel").
>> 
>> "The speaker" who refers to himself as "I" is "they"
>> and Pynchon is noting what they "will" tell you.  This
>> makes sense to you?
> 
> 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.

And, this context -- the fact that Pynchon has been talking to a group of
Watts kids prior to one of them (the kid referring to himself as "I" in the
direct quote) making this statement -- is recapitulated at the close of the
previous paragraph:

    But Watts kids, like most, do not like being put in with winos,
    or dangerous drivers or thieves, or in any bag considered criminal
    or evil. Whatever the cop's motives, it looks like mean and
    deliberate ignorance.

> Why else would Pynchon cite a first person utterance and then label it with
> a third person attribution (in the future tense)?
 
best