IV Chapter 17 Thoughts

[rich]

For one thing I'm coming to think of Shasta as the most interesting
character in the book. Secondly, you noted Doc's epiphany about what
he is working for, but it doesn't seem a guy like Sportello would be
that ignorant of much of the compromising he's been doing over the
years unlike say Slothrop, Mason or Dixon, where their eipihanies
strike me as more believable.

rich

On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 7:12 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen
<lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>
> Remember that Shasta is connected to Lemuria via Mount Shasta.
>
> Perhaps that's why her motivations in this novel appear 'schizo' and/or
> 'mysterious.' The following website --- Please note that personally I do
> not believe that there are, these centuries, Lemurians or 'Reptile people'
> or whatnot walking bzw. crawling the planet! --- is also interesting,
> 'cause it mentions a "Bigfoot race of people". So perhaps Shasta is closer
> related to Bigfoot than visible from the novel's text. Since the website
> last got updated in 2007, Pynchon will like have seen it during his
> writing process:
>
> http://www.lemurianconnection.com/en/about-mount-shasta.htm
>
> Regarding Doc ("Forget who --- WHAT was he working for anymore?", p. 314):
> This kind of question --- think Slothrop, think Chums, think M&D (the
> characters) - seems always to pop up in a Pynchon novel sooner or later ...
>
> Kai
>
>
> Rich:
>
>> It should be noted that Shasta to me is the most interesting character
>> in the chapter--being an actress one wonders about her motivations and
>> the like but she is veritably schizo in Chapter 17--coy, honest,
>> obscene, profound, salacious, angry, scared, annoyed, etc. She's very
>> mysterious. guess you can't ask for more in a femme fatale.
>
>> The last paragraph notes Doc's mind's foolish attempt to find its way
>> back into some past already gone, but the ever-present surf reminds
>> him of truths whether he wanted to see them or not. The truth is
>> unavoidable and will not be denied.
>
>
> ----------------------------------------
>> Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 17:53:46 -0500
>> Subject: IV Chapter 17 Thoughts
>> From: richard.romeo at gmail.com
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>
>> Chapter 17 is a turning point in the novel. Many things are resolved
>> or revealed: the Boards are no longer zombies, we find out how and why
>> Coy joined the Vigilantes, namely because he felt they gave enough of
>> a shit while his life was at its lowest, to show him aspects of
>> himself, talents that he would have never discovered on his own, a
>> talent for acting, going undercover. Only too late does he realize his
>> mistake and the bad shit he's brought down on himself and those he's
>> compromised. He's a fake and wants out.
>> Doc discovers that the reason he is helping Coy is that he cannot
>> escape, cannot cut loose from the people whom Coy is probably working
>> for as well--the police, the feds and the Nixonites, the Golden Fang,
>> and other assorted bad guys (in cahoots, in permutations,
>> combinations)
>> Shasta explains why she (and others) are attracted to a powerful man
>> like Mickey--they love his brutal and aggressive ways, the way he
>> makes them feel invisible (not a bad thing for her one supposes
>> considering her fear of becoming another Sharon Tate.
>> But I think the most important revelation is said by Shasta (she says
>> she is sorry for zinging him, for being so 'actressy') about Doc, Coy,
>> and even Mickey to some extent. The fact is that all these men are
>> acting out some sort of fantasy about being badasses, free from the
>> straight world, doping, fucking (living off the grid in a sense like
>> Frenesi) but in actual fact are really just working for the forces of
>> repression--Doc's cash customers are folks like the developer Crocker
>> Fenway, Coy is a undercover snitch, and Mickey plays the role of the
>> reformed bad guy, being ever charitable, giving shit away, living a
>> hip lifestyle but in the end returning to his old ways with a little
>> nudge from those bad guys.
>> It should be noted that Shasta to me is the most interesting character
>> in the chapter--being an actress one wonders about her motivations and
>> the like but she is veritably schizo in Chapter 17--coy, honest,
>> obscene, profound, salacious, angry, scared, annoyed, etc. She's very
>> mysterious. guess you can't ask for more in a femme fatale.
>> The last paragraph notes Doc's mind's foolish attempt to find its way
>> back into some past already gone, but the ever-present surf reminds
>> him of truths whether he wanted to see them or not. The truth is
>> unavoidable and will not be denied.
>>