IVIV Sportello

[Mark Kohut]

We know that penance is a subtle theme stream in AtD....
and we all remember Karmic Adjustment from Vineland.

It is also clear from the video backstory that Doc is self-consciously
aware of his past....he says that now, making less money, he 
has 'less karmic hassle' and "less guilt-tripping".....

This set-up of Doc as Inherent Vice begins seems to matter. Doc's 'working both sides', betraying some folks for the cops, reminds me of the Pynchon leitmotif of spying, double agents, everywhere in his fiction. Human betrayal. 

But for a time now, that glorious period (?), Doc has NOT been that.

--- On Wed, 8/19/09, John Carvill <johncarvill at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: John Carvill <johncarvill at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: IVIV Chandler
> To: "Doug Millison" <dougmillison at comcast.net>
> Cc: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 12:02 PM
> >
> >> He never hit anybody
> >> up with that syringe, but he carried it and used
> it as a threatening
> >> visual aid.
> >
> > And that makes him a nice guy?  It makes him a
> bully at best.
> 
> No, I'm not saying it makes him nice. I'm saying, the video
> seems to
> fill in more background on Doc, some of it 'negative', eg.
> helping
> cops with shakedown schemes. That's already been pointed
> out. My point
> was, even without the video, we know Doc as some sort of
> skip tracer,
> which does not have overwhelmingly 'positive' connotations
> in itself.
>