back to IVing IV: "What", Doc wondered aloud, "the fuck, is going on here?"

[Mark Kohut]

The file is an LAPD file. Penny says that letting a PI see a file on a criminal is done all the time, expressed in that joke about Doc being ready for the bar exam any time now.

p. 268 re Prussia, dope peddler, re getting caught: "but not if he's running the ones most apt to do the popping."

LAPD?

"Oh, heaven forfend."

There is a decent case Alice is making, imho, that, after doc's conversation with Bigfoot, p.272, Doc should have known how dangerous Prussia's file was...........

BUT, even believing that Prussia was being protected by the LAPD somehow, hearing from Bigfoot that this even involved murder(s), DID NOT lead him to suspect that it involved a murder of an LAPD officer---Bigfoot's partner. p272 "I give up. Why?"

Bigfoot throws out the big hint: it's an Internal Affairs affair. Doc must think that that is because of cop corruption regarding drugs, money for, etc. 

I cannot see where cowardice comes in at all, for Doc or Penny. This is a 
standard genre move: PI gets inside info from insider. That THAT shows a symbiotic relationship between an outsider PI, law enforcement and law-breaking is clear, though.  

The file contained a worse history than Doc suspected involving, probably, the covering-up of murder(s) by the LAPD therefore Penny's act is a very unknown [to her] dangerous thing----as is Doc's knowledge now. 

--- On Thu, 12/3/09, alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: back to IVing IV: "What", Doc wondered aloud, "the fuck, is going  on here?"
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Thursday, December 3, 2009, 4:38 AM
> On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 10:24 PM,
> Richard Fiero <rfiero at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > alice wellintown wrote:
> >>
> >> >Mark Kohut wrote:
> >> > p. 283 Doc's  'first thought' was for
> Penny's safety after looking at
> >> > this
> >> > folder. Doc is presented as a tender-hearted
> type---outside of a
> >> > one-on-one with some Badasses--once again. P
> shows us steady thoughts of
> >> > others, especially his women "friends".
> >>
> >> Again, I'm reading a very different Larry. The
> text doesn't say his
> >> first thought was FOR her safety. He understands
> that she might have
> >> put herself in grave danger by treating the file
> as any other sealed
> >> ancient history file when it is in fact a very
> special file; it's a
> >> file that people she works with and people she
> works for, as well as
> >> other dangerous people, don't want her reading or
> slipping to people
> >> like Larry.
> >
> > If the people who owned the file did not want Penny to
> have access to it,
> > she would not have access to it. As she said, "we do
> this all the time."
> 
> So she took no risk at all? The people who own the file
> (can you
> identify them?) don't care who reads it? Or do they want
> her to read
> it, maybe share it with Larry? I can't follow this. Who
> owns it?
> Please explain or direct me to a page. Thanks.
> 
> As far as I can tell, no one owns it in this sense of
> controlling it.
> It's like millions of other files, sealed, but still in a
> file draw or
> basement archive where government employees can read it and
> if they
> choose to, and if they have a certain level of access,
> steal it, or
> leak it. Happens all the time. In 1970 it happened all the
> time.
> Penny has access to information, a file in this case, as so
> many
> government employees do, that is sealed from public view.
> That people
> in Penny's office read and share information in sealed
> files all the
> time doesn't mean it's without risk. Moreover, this file is
> not just
> any old sealed and ancient history file, but one that has
> information
> in it that puts Penny, as a co-worker and subordinate of
> men who are
> murdering other men in her office, at considerable
> risk.  Penny
> doesn't suspect that the file carries this kind of danger
> and that is
> why she is in more danger. Had Larry told her that the file
> was not
> any "ancient history" file, she may have decided not to
> take the risk.
> But Larry puts her at risk and she puts him in danger
> because they are
> not friends but people who use people, even people they
> make free love
> with, to get information.
> >
> >>  Now, Larry only realizes the super grave nature
> of this
> >> file after he starts reading it, but he knew that
> it was no typical
> >> sealed ancient history file. He knew she was
> putting herself at risk.
> >
> > Perps are released all the time "in the furtherance of
> justice." The people
> > who own the file also own Adrian Prussia, not the
> other way around.
> 
> Who are they and why are they so sloppy? Why didn't they
> destroy or at
> least, take control of the file?
> 
> 
> >> He only now realizes how much risk. Penny, it
> seems has no clue. Not a
> >> fair trade.
> >
> > They are both professionals and have assessed the
> risks. If not, they can go
> > down like our bankers didn't.
> 
> But there are, even in their business, rules of engagement.
> My point
> is that they are both breaking those rules and I see that
> as
> cowardice. This ain't no James Bond movie. Right?
> 
> 
> >
> > It's a fair exchange of information with each getting
> what was wanted.
> > I don't go along with either reading.
> 
> Larry gets a lot more in the bargain. More than he
> bargained for too.
> 
> >
> >> He traded a wall paper penny stock for a bundle of
> blue
> >> chips. As they say, it's another day and every dog
> will have one. This
> >> one belongs to Larry. But let's not confuse one
> good trade with a
> >> positive year. Penny is not his friend. No
> definition of friendship
> >> allows that one can shop one's friends or put them
> in serious harm to
> >> satisfy one's curiosity or get a job done or keep
> one. No, put it in
> >> quotes, but it ain't even close to a friend. An
> enemy is more like it.
> >> And Larry is a coward. What Penny did is fairly
> low on the courage
> >> scale because she didn't know the danger she was
> in. If she knew how
> >> dangerous that file was when she took it and gave
> it to Larry, we
> >> might call her fairly courageous, but not a hero
> because she didn't
> >> take that risk for her friends or brothers and
> sisters, but in
> >> exchange for information. What Larry did is
> cowardice. He downplayed
> >> the risk and sent her in harms way to satisfy his
> own needs and
> >> desires.
> >
> > No, the organization only severely punishes its own,
> not outsiders.
> 
> 
> This organization, as you call it, what and where is it in
> the text?
> Golden Fang? Mafia. CIA? THEM?  Seems to me, this kind
> of paranoia is
> not operational, but destructive. THEY are like a Puritan
> God. A
> little enlightenment might kill THEM.
>