Inherent Vice: Adherent Meaning

[Mark Kohut]

Robin sayeth amazingly:
I'd say that Inherent Vice is entropy personalized. 

Wow.

--- On Fri, 9/11/09, Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:

> From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: Inherent Vice: Adherent Meaning
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Friday, September 11, 2009, 8:32 PM
> On Sep 11, 2009, at 4:52 PM, John
> Bailey wrote:
> 
> > Big question, I know, but: what does inherent vice
> mean? I know the
> > textbook and Pynchon book definition, but in these
> list discussions
> > I'm coming across a bunch of different
> interpretations.
> > 
> > Does the concept refer to:
> > 
> > An element of the object (which is a problem)
> > A property of the object (which is a problem)
> > A condition of the object (usw)
> 
> . . . maritime law and piracy . . .
> 
> > (I'm no philosopher so I might be using these terms
> wrongly)
> 
> It's a lawyer's term—it's already used to being abused,
> feel free, go ahead.
> 
> > In the first instance, for instance, you can see
> Manson as the
> > inherent vice of the hippie movement. But if that's
> the case, remove
> > the Manson element and the hippie movement's pretty
> sweet.
> 
> Remove the craving for the messianic and millennial and
> they are no longer Hippies. It's like Frank's old standard,
> love and marriage. See the Deadheads for more details.
> 
> > In the second instance, the breakiness of egg's is an
> essential
> > property of their egginess. If they weren't breakable,
> they sorta
> > wouldn't be eggs
> 
> Correcto-mundo: "Breakiness" is the Inherent Vice of eggs.
> 
> > In the third instance, it's the situation in which the
> object finds
> > itself that gives rise to the internal flaw. An egg
> just sitting there
> > in isolation wouldn't be at risk, but the simple fact
> that the world
> > is full of egg-breaking things means that lawyers or
> insurers, at
> > least, know of the egg's peril.
> 
> And at the very least may can turn that peril into a major
> income stream for corporate lawyers.
> 
> > Why I ask is, is that Thomas Pynchon named his latest
> book Inherent
> > Vice.
> 
> Beyond the tackiness factor of reminding us of Miami Vice
> there Pynchon's age—72—to take into consideration. I'm
> sure TRP has been experiencing insurance adjustments as of
> late to go along with all those karmic adjustments he writes
> about. I'd say that Inherent Vice is entropy personalized.
> No matter what happens, Pynchon is always gonna be concerned
> with entropy. Another way of looking at entropy is death and
> Pynchon's no spring chicken, let's face it Charlie.
> Pynchon's looking at a lot of the same stuff he was writing
> about in "Lot 49," entropy could never be far away.
> 
> > But how you take that term would seem to alter your
> > interpretation of the novel. If we say Bigfoot is the
> LAPD's inherent
> > vice, or Manson is the hippie movement's, or pot is
> Doc's, or
> > whatever... well, I'm still just trying to get a hold
> of the
> > 'inherent' part. Would Doc be a better or worse
> detective if he wasn't
> > high? A better or worse person? Etc etc etc please
> discuss.
> 
> Whatever else may or may not be going on, Doc Sportello
> does just fine as a P.I., thank you very much.