261 -266
Joseph Tracy
brook7 at sover.net
Thu Nov 19 14:26:21 CST 2009
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?
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