Tapioca pudding GR Part 1 Section 2

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 11/11/2005 jbor wrote:

> Anyway ... it might be interesting to consider the etymology and 
> metonymy of the term "The Firm", as Pynchon uses it here in GR. It's a 
> colloquial reference to a company or corporation in the abstract, and 
> it's most often used to refer to the company by people who are working 
> for that company. There's a connotation of solidity, unity, loyalty. 
> Here, I think Pynchon is using it more broadly to refer to a 
> conglomeration of governments, armed services and corporations. It 
> seems to me that it's meant as an allegory of capitalism.

Lagging behind a bit, but I think that the final long scenario in the 
section (14-16), with Lord Blatherard Osmo, Novi Pazar, and that Giant 
Adenoid, provides us with a specific example of Pirate's work for "the 
Firm", i.e. Special Operations Executive, the British intelligence 
agency.

I agree that "the Firm" and "They" are probably eventually one and the 
same thing, or the one is a part of the other, but at this early point 
in the novel pretty much what we're doing is viewing things exclusively 
from Pirate's perspective. Pirate works for S.O.E., which was then 
known colloquially as "the Firm", and so it's definitely a reference to 
S.O.E. Historically-speaking, S.O.E. was in cahoots with O.S.S. by this 
time, and, as we venture further into the text and other characters' 
perspectives (Slothrop's in particular), the hegemonic entity which is 
manipulating people and situations and the "war effort" becomes more 
nebulous and all-embracing. Slothrop doesn't have a specific employer 
or agency in mind, and he also doesn't have the same terminology as 
Pirate does. Thus, with him, it's "They", or "the Man".

So, yes, in the first instance "the Firm" is S.O.E., the British 
intelligency agency, but it is, or it will soon become evident that it 
is, part of something much greater and more ominous. The idea of who or 
what "They" or "the Firm" is burgeons nightmarishly as we read on. So I 
guess I'm agreeing with everyone on that particular issue.

Anyway, back to the scene. The references to London landmarks are 
there, and to Dr Freud. Cocaine. A political sex scandal. And there's 
more than a nod to 'B'-grade horror films of the '50s and early '60s 
like 'The Blob' and 'Godzilla'. Probably 'The War of the Worlds' is in 
the mix also.

I remember reading somewhere that Nixon had an adenoid condition, and 
that the way that Pynchon gives "Richard M. Zhlubb" a cold and has him 
speak as though he's all stuffed up in Part 4 is a reference to this 
condition (and thus the Giant Adenoid scene at the beginning of the 
text is echoed by an aspect of a scene which comes near the end of the 
text, another example of the way Pynchon has incorporated elements 
which serve to unify the narrative structurally.) Can't recall the 
specific citation, however.

But I think there is a broader point about the work of "the Firm" in 
this sequence. Their focus on Novi Pazar and "the Eastern Question" is 
a hangover from 19th C. British imperialism (14-15, NB the song). But 
while all their efforts were focused on averting "the Balkan 
Armageddon", WWII broke out. Bitter irony there. But I also think 
there's a pointedness in Pynchon's remark about all "the old men ... 
giddy in their beds with its grandeur". These "old men", like Brigadier 
Pudding, are the 'managers' of "the Firm". And they aren't "giddy in 
their beds" about the idea of *saving* the world from Armagedon (Balkan 
or other wise), but by the *prospect* of Armageddon.

best

>
> On Nov 11, 2005 tesauro terrance wrote:
>
>> They are The Firm.
>> They are The Kartell, The Firm, The Syndicate, The Management, The 
>> Empire, The Corporate State, The Ruling Elite or the degenerate 
>> aristocracy, The Elect, The Studio, The Octopus, Count Dracula, and 
>> The Adenoid.

On 12/11/2005 jporter wrote:

> I think the Adenoid is cool and is on our side. It was doing a
> good job of tying up Blatherard until they got to it with cocaine
> and Pirate. It probably could have snuffled off the coke, like the
> American ghettoes of the 80's- the establishment's worst night-
> mare- but Pirate it was not expecting. He came out of the blue.
> How could the Adenoid have known that The Firm had at its
> disposal an asset capable of being a fantasy surrogate?
>
> The Adenoid went down, but it's not forgotten- a mythic hero of
> the underground struggle for freedom from Them and Their
> attempts to control and deny even Their own humanity. The
> Adenoid lives! If we want to get to Them, we have to turn
> Pirate, and mediums like Pirate- the guardians of Their own
> imaginations, set Their fantasies free, and make it impossible
> for them to run Their war- the key to Their power.