IVIV (13) scene one question

[John Carvill]

2009/11/6 David Morris
> Both you and John have good points about Bigfoot.  Doc is generally a
> live and let live kinda guy, even regarding Bigfoot.  And we can
> accept this as OK for most of the book because we don't see Bigfoot
> being really bad until the end.  But then, even after Doc has done so
> much for him, Bigfoot sets up Doc to be busted or worse with that big
> stash.  That's when we really see Bigfoot's evil nature.

Yes, Bigfoot's 'badness' slowly reveals itself, but much still remains
opaque. Not that I seek to defend Bigfoot, it's just he remains an
enigma. As does Doc, to an extent. and as does Mickey Wolfmann,
totally. And then there's the aptly named Coy, usw.

If IV reminds us of VL, and Doc reminds us of Zoyd, then of course
Bigfoot's relationship with Doc recalls Hector's with Zoyd. My
impressions is that Zoyd's feelings towards Hector were less
ambiguous, more straight-forwardly hostile. He hated Hector, in a
general sense, as a representative of the Enemy, the Man, Them; but
also in a more specific, he done me wrong kind of way. Despite all
that, he had a grudging respect for Hector, even sympathy for him.
Although Doc seems to have a history with Bigfoot which involves the
Swede kicking Doc's door in, he also has a grudging respect for him,
and likes to joke around with him, taking the piss out of Bigfoot's
square sensibiities. But it seems a more ambiguous relationship than
Zoyd & Hector, as if Doc is more inclined to think kindly of Bigfoot
than Zoyd was of Hector. I don't really have textual examples, that's
just my feeling. Bigfoot's setting Doc up (almost certainly at the
end, and maybe all the way through) somehow, for me, doesn't quite
puncture that sense of ambiguity.

Balancing all this out on the other side is what we 'know' about Doc's
past. Do we count what we seem to learn in the promo video as part of
Doc's back story? To answer 'yes' to that question seems as
problematic as answering 'no'. If we do include it, then we accept
that Doc used to work with 'the cops', doing some quite dodgy work.
Maybe Bigfoot was one of those cops?

Always I have in mind the fact that Bigfoot is so obviously named,
particularly when you combine that name with Wolfmann (Wolf Man), plus
Lemuria, Mount Shasta, etc. All those names are connected in
Californian folk mythology. What does it all mean? Does it all mean
anything?

That's the puzzle of this book. Normally, we might spend our time
pondering what Pynchon's hidden 'meaning' might be. Here we're left
wondering if there is any meaning at all, or is what this book seems
to be on the surface all there really is? Not that that is by any
means bad, I love the book.