IVIV (1) Surface Streets

[Mark Kohut]

I like surface/street...where we live....

and Yes, the chums are "above it all".....they are not where we live...

--- On Wed, 8/26/09, David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com>
> Subject: RE: IVIV (1) Surface Streets
> To: "Pynchon-l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Wednesday, August 26, 2009, 5:39 PM
> 
> On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 (15:17:03 -0500) Dave Monroe (against.the.dave at gmail.com)
> wrote:
> 
> > ... I was wondering, vs.
> > "underground"? E.g., W.A.S.T.E.? Et soforthiam ...
> 
>  
> But I think that you're on the right track (groan) - only
> I'd say surface vs. above rather vs. below. Surely the
> origin of the phrase is streets on the surface of the city
> as opposed to freeways that tend to be elevated?
>  
> cf, "...the panoramic sense of black impoverishment is hard
> to miss from atop the Harbor Freeway, which so many whites
> must drive at least twice every working day. Somehow it
> occurs to very few of them to leave at the Imperial Highway
> exit for a change, go east instead of west only a few
> blocks, and take a look at Watts. A quick look. The simplest
> kind of beginning. But Watts is country which lies,
> psychologically, uncounted miles further than most whites
> seem at present willing to travel.
> On the surface anyway, the Deadwyler affair hasn't made it
> look any different, though underneath the mood in Watts is
> about what you might expect." - Pynchon, A Journey into the
> Mind of Watts (http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_watts.html)
>  
> Also, Oed's dark night on the surface streets. She's no
> longer above it all in a tower ... she's right there in it
> all. 
>  
> Do the Chums do the opposite? Gradually soar off from the
> harsh realities of Earth?
>  
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