IVIV page 145

[Michael Bailey]

The end of the "sex with Luz" in the abandoned home scene: he's
pumping her for information.

They're talking about Riggs, and his qualities ("big dick, young, poor enough
to keep on some kind of a leash") which Mickey and Sloane both
appreciated.  See, this is the inventor of the Zome, and they
are totally not appreciative of the innovative spiritual properties
of his architectural breakthrough!

(Riggs appeared earlier (61-2) and began sketching for Doc on quadrille
paper, making figures Doc thought were "sort of hip-looking" though
they caused "unwelcome developments inside his brain")

One of the central entanglements, or rhizomes, of the book,
things that make me keep thinking about it, is as follows (less
compactly than I'd like..."I didn't
have time to make it shorter")

Mickey----Channel View----low-quality-high-profit
architecture---quarterly-profit-driven financiers (and insurers, as
alice mentioned) backed by government in its various faces (LAPD, FBI,
lawyers and judges and LDS even) nexus,

versus, or in contradistinction to, the
Mickey---bungled giveaway (like The Magic Christian?) --- innovative
architecture nexus

and complicated (or, illuminated ("illuminate the Middleman!")) by
Riggs, who considers himself a contractor -- Sloane -- Mickey ---
Shasta quadrangle

I think breaking it down like that allows some helpful questions or statements:

a) since Riggs introduces himself as a contractor, he is certainly not the one
driving the "charity" or "pro bono" aspect of the development.  (that is to
say, he would probably introduce himself another way, like, I'm the
director of the Wolfmann Foundation or something, or "I'm the vanguard
of the next revolution in urban space" -- whereas saying, "I'm a contractor"
is pretty down to earth.  Also, a contractor is project-based and occupies
a different conceptual head-space than employee or partner...)  He has
innovative
structures that could be built within the existing profit-centered economy.

b) all this mate-swapping confuses things?  Is that the problem, or maybe all
the drugs Mickey was taking?

c) in this light, the concern of Shasta for Mickey becomes more understandable.
Mickey probably has the clout to introduce a new form of housing.  But nobody,
probably, has the clout to do a massive giveaway neatly.

d) do they?  well, let's except the Federal Government, although how neatly
giving trillions to bankers works out remains to be seen.  Actually seems to
be going fairly well.

e) but, from the point of view of giveaways that an average schlub like
myself would be willing to stand back and admire, that one doesn't count.
If I need to explain why, I'm probably posting on the wrong board...

f) The type that crisscrosses my mind is Apple LTD, where John Lennon
basically invited every guitar player with a dream to apply for nurturing.
As Douglas Adams noted, the universe is really big.  It contains lots of
people who would sign up for that sort of thing.

g) so you start having to have "barriers to entry" and pretty soon
it becomes clear why the for-profit system (sort of) works and why
alternatives that perform even that well (which is sometimes rather
poorly...) have been slow to appear...let alone things that perform better

8) I think they are possible, though  (what's that Galileo said,
"Hey, dude, nonetheless, it does move..."?)

9) It complicates the heck out of a marriage to have outside affairs.
In my experience, reading and watching, it also doesn't seem to do much
for the health and wealth of the people in it...not to mention happiness...

10) Here is where Elmina and Leo are a refreshing contrast...


For short, the M-LQH-B/I/G nexus stands for Mickey - Low Quality
Housing - Banks/Insurance Companies/Government
The R-S-M-S would be Riggs, Sloane, Mickey and Shasta ("some Humbert
Humbert cat" takin' Doc's chick!)
The M-GT-R-Z would be Mickey,  Guilt Trip, Riggs, Zomes...

-----------------
but enough of all that (for now)...back to the action!

"for days he would be making up explanations for all the visible
hickeys and claw marks and so on"
- who does he have to answer to?
Well, that's the beauty part of Doc, if you ask me:
everybody.  He engages with people.  He builds
constantly what is referred to in Vineland as an
army? network? something, of loving friends.
I imagine him getting teased about his hickeys
by Penny, Bigfoot, his folks even, Downstairs Eddie...

...and of course Petunia, who appears at the bottom
of page 145, announcing a visitor over the intercom.
Doc toggles the Bakelite switches (nostalgia factor)
on the intercom and compliments her on her outfit
(there's a shtick about her outfits elsewhere) which
on this day is daffodil-colored.

Did I mention that on the next page, when the
visitor, who turns about to be Clancy Charlock,
deprecates rather scathingly the air-freshener he's used
against the possibility that his visitor will be anti-marijuana,
by asking what the (fuckin nauseating) smell is,
he reads the label aloud: "Wildflower Whimsy"

This could be applied to the choice of ladies'
names in IV too.  Not the "fuckin nauseating" part,
of course...









-- 
--- ...one of the "sounds of the sixties" evoked in IV
is that of the coffee percolator, which is simply a far, far groovier
sound than any drip coffeemaker has ever made