ATDTDA (7): Sidekicks, 195-196

[Monte Davis]

> More of Deuce's backstory, including his relationship
> with Sloat Fresno: each thinks of the other as his
> "sidekick", "each thinking he was protecting the
> other"...

> The text gives us a lot of information about Deuce in
> these pages, this superior knowledge effectively
> distancing the reader from Webb. Hence, the above
> passage begs the question: how will Deuce find that he
> wants to go through with this job?...

A very persuasive reading, Paul, especially on Deuce's ambivalent need for
"something he could find either contemptible or desirable enough to prod him
through it."

So often, with the funny names and the distancing techniques you've noted,
one thinks Pynchon is settling for two-dimensional cardboard, especially in
a secondary or instrumental character -- and then a ray of stinging
psychological truth like this brings out the relief. It has happened with
Scarsdale Vibe, and it will happen with Derrick Theign. 

On your remark the other day that Webb "is perhaps anxious to see in Deuce
the child he has failed, at home, to nurture": let's not be too
sophisticated to give "Deuce Kindred" its most obvious reading as "second
family."