IVIV (13) scene one question

[Mark Kohut]

Uh...if Doc was intending a lethal overdose after a beating of felt fury, why did he "handcuff Puck in case he came to" ?...p.327



--- On Fri, 11/6/09, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: IVIV (13) scene one question
> To: "David Morris" <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> Cc: "John Carvill" <johncarvill at gmail.com>, pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Friday, November 6, 2009, 4:12 PM
> I agree and its not like I don't
> understand why--in a stricter sense,
> Puck is knocked out and handcuffed when Doc gives him an
> apparent
> OD--even if you're doing it to the most evil person on
> earth, it's
> still technically murder
> 
> I can't imagine another mainly sympathetic Pynchon
> character ever
> doing something like this but as has been noted Pynchon is
> working in
> another vein (insert pun here)
> 
> Rich
> 
> On 11/6/09, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > I'd not call Doc's killing of Puck murder.  When
> one is trying to
> > escape from someone who's about to kill you and from
> the person who
> > ordered your killing, just about anything is fair.
> >
> >> one thing that really differentiates Doc from Zoyd
> is that Doc killed
> >> somebody--Puck is murdered by Doc; at least w/
> Adrian one could point
> >> to self-defense but thinking legally here it does
> beg the question
> >> about Doc's past--we're given the goofy, at times
> genial, laid back
> >> hipster but there's the skip tracer past, the
> aforementioned run ins
> >> w/ Puck and Adrian, etc.
> >> I'm not sure there are answers to these
> questions.
> >> In noir, you know the PI's are badasses, who've
> done some shitty
> >> things but their behavior doesn't come across as
> jarring as it does
> >> with Doc--guess we are programmed not to think of
> Pynchon's
> >> protagonists this way--if not total good guys, at
> least folks you can
> >> root for in some way--Slothrop, DL, Dixon, Lew,
> etc.
> >
>