261 -266

[Joseph Tracy]

I think the zombie thing is worth further investigation and if no one  
else does , I will return to the topic at some point. But time to  
move on to a fresh new morning.

The scene at wavos is a reminder of  the life of the  local   
alternative communities that that emerged in the 60s and centered  
around  music and food as all communities worthy of the name do.  
Shasta Fay shows up  carefree, and with her Country Joe t-shirt  " as  
if she hadn't even met Mickey Wolfmann, as if some stereo needle..."
She greeets him and he has an erection which he covers with the Book  
review from the Paper. classic sublimation and an interesting point  
to insert the idea of a book review; is the reader still interested?

Ah the power of beauty and our uncontrollable reaction to it, the  
energies that swirl around it, moved by a different kind of gravity,  
the excitement and trepidation,who moves on and who is left behind.

What happens here seems irresponsible to the point of cruelty on  
Shasta's part. She has asked Doc's help, been kidnapped or  
disappeared in a big media story,  and when he asks about it she  
seems etither not to remember  "Post card?", "Family Stuff?" or to  
feel no responsibility to explain.

The shell seems a clue. Shells are protective growths of a vulnerable  
organism. She may be protecting herself or Doc,  may be still hanging  
out in a Lemurian space comforted or numbed by distant soothing  
waves.  Or perhaps she is an agent  of one of the players.  Why does  
he leave her company on Bigfoot's account? He too seems to want to  
protect himself from the dark implications of a case that started out  
of concern for Shasta and now?

The scene with the cup and the mutual and symmetrically timed  
apologies about the phone discussion with BF's wife shows a turn to a  
more sympathetic  relationship . I think Pynchon is in fact pointing  
to the idea that the culture wars are to a large degree artificial.  
That they rely on mistrust and lack of human connection and empathy.

We just had a rash of burglaries around town and the cops have been  
very thorough and respectful and apparently doing their job because  
they just caught someone with some of the local missing items.  We  
hire cops because we want some calm deliberative, well equipped  
people dealing with sociopathic violence or criminality, and it  
doesn't have to be a fearful, repressive force.  There was a growing  
local reaction and will probably be some kind of neighborhood watch  
but in this case one could see the disadvantages of trying to deal   
with it on that basis. People got focused on false leads.
So I'm rambling here

BF tells Doc  the Dealer El Drano has been killed, warns him to stay  
away, Doc recalls similar warning by Puck B.   later Fritz does same  
about A. Prussia. .

Leonard Jermaine Loosemeat     aka ElDrano ( a reconfiguration of  
Leonard)
move ahead 3 pages (266)to the check  from Arbolada Savings and Loan  
in Ojai that El Drano was getting before he was killed.  I still  
haven't connected the dots to Mickey and why he is paying Loosemeat.
Anyone? Was he troubled about Coy and ready as Doc asks himself  
"...to go confess to somebody? Who wouldn't have wanted him to do  
that?" Is L Jermaine L indeed  germane to the plot?