IV 15 p256

[John Bailey]

This point of the book was really unsettling for me - it's as if the
novel hits the reset button, or Doc returns to find himself in a new,
alternate universe which has branched ever-so-slightly from the one he
was in before (this occurs all the time in AtD of course). In this
universe, Shasta is wandering around carefree, and everybody knows it,
whereas until now she'd been paranoid, hiding, and we later find out
for good reason. Why is she out in the open here when she was
essentially kidnapped and escaped her captors, rather than being
freed?

On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 4:03 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> end of CH 14, p 255 “ … didn’t really wake up till they were going over
> Cajon Pass, and it felt like he’d just been dreaming about climbing a
> more-than-geographical ridgeline ….and descending into new terrain it would
> be more trouble than he might be up to to turn and climb back over again.”
>
> CH 15 256”…Tito let Doc Off.., and it was like landing on some other
> planet.”
>
> It seems that Doc’s investigation is not over and that he has in fact
> traversed into new territory. Before his inquiries he was mostly a local
> character and his vision was fairly parochial but every lead  has led to
> bigger games. While the terrain is bigger the incline is downward, and
> everything familiar looks foreign. People are strange when you’re a
> stranger.
>
> Coming and going from the world of GR must have been disorienting at times,
> but anytime you see the bigger picture, or find evidence of the mob behind
> the mob things look different. Also we move into the territory of what is
> fictional reality and what is “real” reality. Often this manifests as a
> dialogue between logic and sensory/emotional data: “maybe Tito had dropped
> him in some other beach town” Doc grasps his head and advises himself to
> “focus in and pay attention” . This brings up the PoMo or for that matter
> Buddhist or Gnostic  question of how much you can trust what is going on in
> your head.
>
>  At which point corroborating  witnesses are helpful.
> “ Excuse me sir, I seem to be a little disoriented ? Could you please tell
> me if this is by any chance Gordita Beach?”
>
> So to me Doc reflects to us that Pynchon readers aren’t the only ones asking
> these questions and wondering what this story we read, or live, or tell
> ourselves is all about.
>
> “ Wow, Doc , it’s me, you okay?......after awhile Doc dug how this was Denis
> or somebody impersonating Denis, which, in the circumstances, he’d settle
> for.
>
>