"straightworld", a bit of glossing

[rich]

He likes natural curves, the rounded walls of old European cities in ATD,
of course, the bent and broken.
________
not bent cops that's for sure. I think Bigfoot is one despite
Pynchon's grudging respect for the street code of 'watching yr buddies
back' by everday policemen on the beat and the fact that he's too much
of a loose cannon for the higher echelons of the LAPD (very similar in
that way to Brock Vond and the upper reaches of the Justice
Dept/FBI--I think that's all we can sympathize about these guys,
within the elect (the secular version being law enforcement) they are
preterite so to speak--that they don't realize it makes them pretty
pathetic)

Rich

On 8/24/09, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> First, as I posted, the meaning at the time of IV is more than just those
> who smoke pot.....it was the word for the dominant culture, not the
> alternative, 'counter-culture".....suburbia, office jobs, etc. [see Google
> Book Search, if interested]
>
> I will get to an OED in the fulness of time, if no one has access, for their
> usage detail.
>
> As early as 1972, it seems to have started to have the meaning of
> 'not gay/lesbian"---[Again see Google Book Search, if interested]
>
> It seems there are more citations for England/London than the US, for
> whatever that means, but it may have been used more in LA than many places
> around the time of IV. [hard to know since the internets [joke] do not have
> most from then].
>
> Stephen Fry, actor/writer of an age still used it in this countercultural
> sense in a recent blog posting...
>
> But I am also going to add this from what I call Pynchon's poetic/notional
> associations, lifelong.   He often mocks straight lines (and grids and right
> angles) especially in Against the Day (and GR, I think: Tore? )as in the
> layout of Chicago streets, for example.  Linearity is usually NOT a positive
> in his work.....so this word straightworld resonates with his whole oeuvre,
> not surprisingly. ....
>
> He likes natural curves, the rounded walls of old European cities in ATD,
> of course, the bent and broken.
>
>
>
>
>